History Characters / FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Out of the Mane Six, Starlight mostly interacts with Twilight and Spike. As she's learning about friendship as Twilight's pupil and roommate, it would make a lot of sense for her to be making more of an effort to bond with the rest of the Mane Six, however she usually only meets them through Twilight or when she tags along as the Mane Six go on two-parter adventures, but seeing her in a one-on-one with the primary cast in SliceOfLife stories is more rare (She has [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E4RockSolidFriendship spent time with Pinkie Pie]] however, who is friends with ''everyone''). Part of the reason is that for most of Season 6 she's an AbsenteeActor and generally only appears in any given episode if she's important to the plot, while Season 7 gives her more secondary roles and the occasional {{Cameo}}. Even then her only real established relationships outside the Mane Six (sans Twilight and Spike) are with Trixie, Sunburst, Thorax, Maud (all of who have guest star status) and Sunset, [[TheProtagonist the main character]] of the SpinOff [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls series]], who has not appeared in ''Friendship Is Magic''). Season 8 compensates for this by having her interact more with the rest of the Mane Six in certain episodes (with Fluttershy in "Horse Play", Applejack and Rarity in "The Mean 6" and Rainbow Dash and Rarity in "The End in Friend").

%% Observe Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment -- this isn't the place for a Starlight vs. Sunset argument

* ArcVillain: Of Season 5. Unlike the others, she isn't reformed or depowered by the end of the two-parter, and returns in the season finale. While she only appears in these episodes, (aside from some background cameos spying on the main cast), with the season's overarching focus on cutie marks, she serves as a thematic villain to tie into the season's story arc.

* BrightIsNotGood: A pastel purple unicorn with [[FluffyTheTerrible a cute name]] and bright teal highlights in her mane and naturally looks as cute as all the other ponies. She was also a mentally unstable dictator turned vengeful maniac and [[ArcVillain the main villain]] of Season Five who also possessed dangerous magical power to boot. Naturally, one HeelFaceTurn later, Starlight Glimmer averted this, becoming just as good and friendly as she looks.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Starlight was an ArcVillain enemy who actually imprisoned the Mane Six in her village to brainwash them, and after her first defeat outright despised them enough [[RevengeBeforeReason to jump start a revenge plot against them]]. After surrendering, she ends up forgiven by the Mane Six and [[SixthRanger becomes one of their strongest allies]].

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: More or less a RunningGag. No matter how much she tries, Starlight Glimmer will ''never'' be able to escape being reminded of her dark past. [[InnocentlyInsensitive Trixie]] and other characters accidentally bring it up on occasion, and even meeting someone seemingly inconsequential or unrelated like ''Maud Pie'' ties it all the way back towards it, as it turns out, it was [[ForgottenFirstMeeting Maud Pie who told Starlight]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom where to find the anti-magic mineral cave to keep the cutie marks of her followers of Our Town]]. Poor Starlight just can't catch a break.

* NotSoDifferenRemark:

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In her first appearance, Starlight Glimmer preaches that she wants to bring equality to all Equestria to stop conflicts and ensure that every friendship will be unbreakable, and on a conscious level, she believes this. However, with the reveal of her FreudianExcuse, it's apparent that Starlight's true concern was [[spoiler:her ''own'' friendships. She craved companionship, but wasn't willing to run the risk of clashing interests and talents with other ponies, and took away their unique traits to ensure they could never leave or question her.]]

* StockYuck: Averted, Starlight’s voice actor has confirmed that [[https://twitter.com/AIBJ95/status/1056199599507918848 she likes pineapple on her pizza]]

** In [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 the movie]]. Especially notable in her case, since she's a major character on the show. This is due at least in part to the fact that the movie began production before Season 5 started airing, and thus its plot was being written before the decision to redeem Starlight was made and she became a major character.

[[folder:Tropes E to L]]

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[[folder:Tropes M to P]]

* BadPowersBadPeople: As a villain , she has the power to strip ponies of their cutie marks and special talents, and is a tyrannical dictator, forcing others to believe in her twisted doctrine.

* BadPowersBadPeople: As a vilian, she has the power to strip ponies of their cutie marks and special talents, and is a tyrannical dictator, forcing others to believe in her twisted doctrine.

* StoryBreakerPower: PlayedForDrama. Starlight is strong enough to keep up with alicorns handily, and her powers include changing a pony's cutie marks (along with associated personality traits and magical talent), travelling through time, SuperSpeed, making illusionary copies of herself, advanced usage of teleportation and telekinesis, powerful shield spells, and mentally dominating other ponies. She could resolve most any conflict with her magic, which is a major crux of her character; most of Starlight's centric episodes involve her quickly resorting to magic to solve a problem she's encountering, and it usually backfires and makes the situation worse (due to the magic having effects she didn't expect, her not considering the obvious consequences, and other reasons). This is why a major aspect of her CharacterDevelopment is learning to ''not'' resort to using magic all the time and try to find other ways to deal with her problems. In addition, she was also stated to be reliant on her channeling her own emotions like rage or revenge to make her most impressive feats (like the cutie mark removal spell and dueling an alicorn on equal footing) possible, meaning she actually can't invoke her strongest magic at will for every situation.

* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: When first introduced as a villain, she can remove ponies cutie marks, and upon her reappearance fight an alicorn (and the Element of Magic at that) to a standstill. One season and a HeelFaceTurn later, she has to hide from a couple of normal changeling impersonators, even before the AntiMagic throne comes into play. Later on, it's outright stated she was only able to pull off things like removing cutie marks and match Twilight in a fight because she was channeling her ''immense'' desire for revenge against both straight into magical strength. Starlight augments her magic through her emotions, which means it can be unreliable.

* SuperpowerLottery: Looks like Twilight Sparkle wasn't the only pony who won it. Starlight is very talented in magic herself, being able to perform innovative spells like Cutie Mark Removal and Time Travel, as well as give Princess Twilight Sparkle, an already well-known magical prodigy alicorn, a run for her money in a duel despite being an average unicorn. However, her magical strength is greatly impaired if her emotions are not focused and can become outright dangerous when they are a bit ''[[RevengeBeforeReason too focused]]'' or they happen to run out of control. It's one of the main reasons why Twilight makes her a pupil in the first place.

* {{Troll}}: In "The Cutie Re-Mark", to the point where she could even give Discord a run for his money. When facing a magic beam from Twilight, she casually hops aside and when one of Twilight's attempts to seal Starlight ends up hitting Rainbow Dash instead, she sarcastically gives a goofy applause. At one point, she even stops the Rainboom by convincing the bullies to stop making fun of Fluttershy, a tactic that Twilight is utterly unable to counter as that would involve her encouraging the bullies to be bullies again. It's obvious she mostly did this to screw with Twilight, and it's pretty damn amazing.

* PurpleIsPowerful: Starlight is dominantly purple and magic is her greatest talent. Her magical ability far exceeds that of many average unicorns and is capable of even matching alicorn magic.

** [[spoiler:She claims she lost her friend, Sunburst, due to him having a natural talent for magic. However, she is extremely apt at magic herself to the point she can even rival Twilight (a noted prodigy and alicorn princess to boot), and Sunburst isn't actually that good at it (which meant that his cutie mark caused him almost as much strife as it did Starlight).]]

* InexplicablyAwesome: She is a unicorn who is equal to or greater than Twilight or Sunset (both powerful former personal students of Celestia and one of them now an alicorn) in magic. She is able to duplicate herself, which is something that Trixie could not do even while her magic was boosted by the Alicorn Amulet (albeit it could be said this doesn't count as she doesn't actually duplicate herself, but uses an illusionary image of herself and a speed spell to appear to be duplicated), with no outside help, and she was able to improve Starswirl's time-travel spell. The second part of the Season 7 premiere explains this as an example of EmotionalPowers. She was using her emotions to strengthen her magic (for example, her hatred at cutie marks after losing touch with Sunburst allowed her enough power to remove them, as Trixie lampshades), and implies she could not have held her own against Twilight in their duel if it weren't for her rage boosting her.

* TheGift: She is one of the most powerful characters in the whole show. Although not as strong as Twilight, she should gets more credit for not having any Godlike mentor or had a formal study.

* TheGift: She either rivals or slightly surpasses Twilight in magical ability, who is currently said to be nearly as powerful as Star Swirl The Bearded, the most powerful Unicorn in history. Starlight doesn't have alicorn magic like Twilight, and is much younger than, and hasn't lived to study spells for nearly as long as Star Swirl. Starlight is just a prodigy and states that she has always been something of a natural when it comes to magic.

** In "A Matter of Principals", Discord, in a fit of jealousy that she was picked to serve as Headmare in Twilight's absence, calls Starlight [[DarkAndTroubledPast "an incompetent and power-hungry unicorn."]] Starlight is so upset by this that she uses a literal Scorched Earth attack to banish Discord from the campus (though he is not affected by that attck).

* BadassAdorable: Able to match alicorn Twilight in magic and very likely one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria. More emphasis on the "adorable" part after her HeelFaceTurn, where she adopts a new, unique manestyle and is overall a much happier, more pleasant pony.

** In "A Matter of Principals", Discord, in a fit of jealousy that she was picked to serve as Headmare in Twilight's absence, calls Starlight [[DarkAndTroubledPast "an incompetent and power-hungry unicorn."]] Starlight is so upset by this that she uses a literal Scorched Earth attack to banish Discord from the campus.
* BewareTheSuperman: Starlight's magical talent at least rivals Twilight's, and her knowledge of spells might even exceed Twilight's. Starlight demonstrates how dangerous a villain with that kind of power would be; unlike Twilight, she's willing to radically mess with the laws of nature. This is also why the Mane Six decide to help reform her so that her power can be used for good instead of by a dangerous enemy.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The selling point of her belief system. With cutie marks, friends can disagree, argue, or be jealous of each other. In her community, everypony is equal, so those problems are a non-issue. Everyone is equal and no one has cause to fight or be jealous. Ironically she proves roughly equal to Twilight Sparkle on numerous occasions, even fighting her to a draw in magic (albeit neither were beaten by the time the fight ended so the final result was undecided), and creates a spell previously thought impossible (though she says Starswirl did the hard part for her). This is part of what prompts Twilight to pursue her redemption; she's both too dangerous to remain a villain and would be very valuable as a friend.

* NotSoDifferent:

** Even moreso with Discord. She's very ordered and structured, while Discord's entire raison d'être is Chaos. However, after their adventure together fighting the Changelings, he seems keen to spend time with her, and she, in turn, is shown to be amused by some of his playful antics.[[note]]Although considering her rather impulsive and liberal use of magic, and the chaotic results that often follow, it is possible that they are NotSoDifferent.[[/note]]

* ArcVillain: Of Season 5. Unlike the others, she isn't reformed or depowered by the end of the two-parter, and returns in the season finale. While she only appears in these episodes, with the season's overarching focus on cutie marks, she serves as a thematic villain to tie into the season's story arc.

!![[center: [- [[Characters/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main Index]] -]]][[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Main Cast:]]''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], '''Starlight Glimmer''', [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders the Cutie Mark Crusaders]]-]]] [[center: [- '''Supporting Cast:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessCelestia Princess Celestia]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessLuna Princess Luna]]), [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship the School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]-]]] [[center: [-'''Antagonists:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMajorVillains Major Villains]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra King Sombra]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek Lord Tirek]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]]), [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]])-]]] [[center: [- '''World of Equestria:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]-]]] [[center: [-'''Minor Characters:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]])-]]] [[center: [- '''Equestria Girls''' [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]] ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]]), [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]] -] ]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main Index]] -]]]
[[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Mane Cast]]''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], Starlight Glimmer, [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders The Cutie Mark Crusaders]]) | '''Supporting Cast''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessCelestia Princess Celestia]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessLuna Princess Luna]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]) | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMajorVillains Major Villains]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra King Sombra]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek Lord Tirek]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]]) | '''World of Equestria''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]) | '''Minor Characters''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]]) | '''Equestria Girls''' ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]]) -] ]]

[[center:[-[[Characters/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main Index]]-]]]
[[center:[-'''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Mane Six]]''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], Starlight Glimmer, [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders The Cutie Mark Crusaders]]) | '''Supporting Cast''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]) | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMajorVillains Major Villains]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]]) | '''World of Equestria''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]) | '''Minor Characters''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]]) | '''Equestria Girls''' ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]])-]]]

[[folder:#-D]]

[[folder:E-L]]

[[folder:M-P]]

[[folder:Q-Z]]

** To [[spoiler: Stygian, who, like her, was a Seventh Ranger to a group of six heroes who wanted to help them defend Equestria. However, while Starlight is a magical prodigy who ended up using her powers for evil means, Stygian had no power of his own and tried to perform a ritual to gain it, and for it was cast out and turned to evil. Their similarities are a major plot point in "Shadow Play" that serve to help convince Twilight that the Pony of Shadows could be redeemed instead of just banished.]]
%% Observe Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment -- this isn't the place for a Starlight vs Sunset argument

* HeroesFrontierStep: Starlight crosses it in "To Where and Back Again", where ''[[WorfHadTheFlu without her magic]]'', she manages to lead a successful rescue mission with her friends, as well as [[spoiler: teaching the Changelings how to love]]. This was Starlight's first true act of heroism, making up for all of her previous deeds as a villain, and inspires her with the confidence to [[{{Denouement}} finally accept]] that she really has become a good pony.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Starlight talking down the bullies to get them to stop teasing filly Fluttershy in the Season 5 finale was a noble act, except it gets rid of Rainbow Dash's inspiration to race to begin with. No Sonic Rainboom, no Mane Six cutie mark connection, thus [[spoiler: Equestria is doomed]], thus she wins.

* NaiveNewcomer: She has an extremely difficult time finding her way around the Friendship Castle. Later, she tries to take advantage of this by deliberately have Spike tell stories of his past adventures so she can delay her reunion with Sunburst as much as possible, but Spike sees through her plan to distract him and stops telling stories. Humorously played up in "No Second Prances", as she has no familiarity with anything regarding Equestria in general. Also in Mirror Magic, she's this to the Human World as well.

** She invokes this again in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E26ShadowPlayPart2 Shadow Play – Part 2]]", telling [[spoiler: Stygian]] that she wasn't so different from him once, and that Twilight helped her, as she could help [[spoiler:Stygian]].

* OnlySaneMan: In the Season 7 finale. [[spoiler: She is concerned about the Mane Six's plan to save the Pillars of Equestria from Limbo in the first part, while in the second part, she doubts the course of action her friends are taking, believing that banishing Stygian aka the Pony of Shadows back to Limbo isn't the right way to go.]]

** In "The Crystalling – Part 2", Starlight expresses disappointment after her initial attempts to reconcile with Sunburst don't work out and questions whether or not Twilight Sparkle was right in considering her worthy of friendship and giving her another chance as her pupil. Spike tells Starlight she is worth being friends with and encourages her to keep trying to reconcile with Sunburst. [[spoiler: Which she manages in the end]].

Starlight Glimmer was the BigBad of Season 5, featuring in both the premiere "The Cutie Map" and the finale "The Cutie Re-Mark." She felt that cutie marks only led to pain and unhappiness as the differences between ponies pulled them apart, so she created a community where the residents gave up their cutie marks to know "true" friendship, while Starlight secretly kept her own cutie mark so she could use her magic to enforce this conformity. When Starlight was exposed she fled, spying on Twilight throughout Season 5, until she returned in the season finale to get vengeance on Twilight by using TimeTravel to stop Twilight and her friends from getting their cutie marks. However, when she realized how important the group was to Equestria, Starlight stood down and surrendered.

Intrigued by Starlight's magical prowess, Twilight took her on as her student, and Starlight became a recurring character in Season 6, living with Twilight in her castle as she learns about the magic of friendship. Twilight appoints her as guidance counselor of the newly opened School of Friendship in Season 8, then promotes her to headmare in Season 9.

Starlight Glimmer was the BigBad of Season 5, featuring in both the premiere "The Cutie Map" and the finale "The Cutie Re-Mark." She felt that cutie marks only led to pain and unhappiness as the differences between ponies pulled them apart, so she created a community where the residents gave up their cutie marks to know "true" friendship, while Starlight kept her own cutie mark to enforce this conformity. When Starlight was exposed she fled, spying on Twilight throughout Season 5, until she returned in the season finale to get vengeance on Twilight by using TimeTravel to stop Twilight and her friends from getting their cutie marks. However, when she realized how important the group was to Equestria, Starlight stood down and surrendered.

[[folder:Characterization and Background]]

* TheAtoner: Starlight Glimmer becomes this at the end of the Season 5 finale, even returning to "Our Town" with Twilight Sparkle to make things up with the town ponies she once manipulated and enslaved. In the Season 6 premiere, she starts her first friendship lesson, reunites and rekindles her friendship with Sunburst. The Season 6 finale has her [[spoiler:finally showing that she understands not just that she was wrong, but why it was so bad, using that knowledge to help defeat Queen Chrysalis]], [[{{Denouement}} effectively closing the book on her darkness.]]

* BeAllMySinsRemembered: Throughout Season 6, Starlight continually worries and beats herself up, deeming herself unworthy of being Twilight Sparkle's pupil, as well as being given a new place to live in the Friendship Castle. Starlight also considers her "Our Town" scheme and nearly dooming Equestria by time travelling [[OldShame so shameful]] that she tries to hide it from Sunburst, out of fear that her reunion will fail because of it. When she returns to her village in "To Where and Back Again", she's so upset by her past that she pushes everypony away and [[TroubledFetalPosition lies down, cowering and shaking]]. As of Season 7, it is shown that Starlight is actually past this, and would rather that her dark and troubled past NOT be brought up in every single conversation, particularly by her BFF, Trixie.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Originally, Starlight is friendly and polite, welcoming the Mane Six to her humble little village. Then the façade begins to fade and we see how manipulative, controlling, and sinister she really is. The facade completely shatters when she is exposed. The new version of Starlight Glimmer completely averts this, becoming genuinely nice underneath her friendly exterior.

* DarkMessiah: She presents herself as a bringer of harmony and true friendship. Right down to having a cult.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Her not making friends for years after Sunburst abandoned her probably drove her to acting mentally unstable.

* {{Hypocrite}}:

* InnocentlyInsensitive:

* LargeHam: Between overdoing her FauxAffablyEvil façade, snarking in the most overly snide tone, just plain [[NoIndoorVoice ranting]] or undergoing a VillainousBreakdown, Starlight is definitely not a mare of subtlety.

* PsychopathicWomanchild: When her affable side is broken and things stop going the way she wants, she succumbs to high-octane temper tantrums, screaming at others for not playing her way and focusing all her directions on petty spite. Her first plan essentially ended with her storming off in a huff. [[spoiler:This comes off as fairly logical since her StartOfDarkness occurred when she was a small filly.]]This is also sadly justified; due to her FriendlessBackground, Starlight never allowed herself to gain nor develop any real maturity due to her being so hurt and angry after losing her friend.

* SmugSnake: Throughout her second appearance, she out-gambits Twilight every step of the way and gloats immensely at every turn. When Twilight finally shows her the consequences of her "victories" however, her smug façade breaks into what can be considered a psychotic-level childish tantrum.
* TheSocialExpert: She's very good at reading others; She was able to sway the inhabitants of her village over to her way of thinking by playing on their shared belief that there was something missing in their lives. It's admittedly somewhat subverted later on as while she's good at reading people and manipulating them, she's seriously lacking in social graces. In "A Royal Problem", she was able to see the internal strife between Celestia and Luna and work towards resolving it, but not before angering both Princesses with her lack of tact. In keeping with this, she is appointed guidance counselor of Twilight's Friendship School in Season 8.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Appearance]]
* BeehiveHairdo: Though the bangs are swept out of the way afterward.
* BrightIsNotGood: A pastel purple unicorn with [[FluffyTheTerrible a cute name]] and bright teal highlights in her mane and naturally looks as cute as all the other ponies. She was also a mentally unstable dictator turned vengeful maniac and [[ArcVillain the main villain]] of Season Five who also possessed dangerous magical power to boot. Naturally, one HeelFaceTurn later, Starlight Glimmer averted this, becoming just as good and friendly as she looks.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In Season 6, following her HeelFaceTurn, she sports a new manestyle where her cut bangs are changed to one open bang going down the side, with a smaller bang on the other side (though the smaller one can only be seen at certain angles). WordOfGod is that the old hairstyle made her look older and matronly and was suitable for her role as a villain, while the new style makes her look younger and friendlier.
* FurryReminder: Starlight Glimmer adjusting to her human body in "Mirror Magic", in the same manner Twilight Sparkle did in the first movie, displays several animal mannerisms, such as trying to trot on all fours and holding her hands clenched as hooves. Later, Sunset has brought her an ice cream cone with a few scoops precariously balanced. While Starlight is talking with Sunset, one of the scoops drops off unnoticed, so when Starlight goes back to take another lick, she acts like a dog bewildered as to where the other scoop has gone.
* GirlishPigtails: As a filly, she used to wear her mane in high pigtails.
* MorphicResonance: As is usual when a pony goes through the portal to the other world, Starlight Glimmer's human appearance shares many similarities with her true form, including skin and hair color(s) as well as hairstyle. This is such an accepted fact, in truth, that Sunset Shimmer can reasonably conclude she'd never seen Starlight's human counterpart in Canterlot before, despite only having just met Starlight Glimmer in pony form at the moment.
* NiceHat: She wears a snazzy fuchsia knit cap decorated with white stars during her trip to the human world.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Starlight is dominantly purple and magic is her greatest talent. Her magical ability far exceeds that of many average unicorns and is capable of even matching alicorn magic.
* WaistcoatOfStyle: Starlight gets a dark gray one when she goes through the portal.

[[folder:Abilities]]
* AchillesHeel:
** She can take cutie marks, but they have to be sealed in a container of some kind or they'll just go right back to the pony they were taken from. This is best shown when she has to go out of her way to keep the jars containing the Mane Six's cutie marks from breaking during the chase, and likely why she never used the spell during it or her battles with Twilight in her return.
** Being a SuperpowerLottery winner, Starlight Glimmer is severely affected by AntiMagic, more than most ponies. Compare her friend Trixie, a unicorn who doesn't use much magic, but could still use some talents effectively.
* TheAllSolvingHammer: To begin with, Starlight relied heavily on her magic, believing it could solve any problem. This resulted in her being left unsure of herself in "To Where and Back Again" when that option was taken from her. Fortunately, as time goes on, Starlight [[CharacterDevelopment learns]] to be less reliant on magic to solve problems.
* BadPowersBadPeople: As a villian, She has the power to strip ponies of their cutie marks and special talents, and is a tyrannical dictator, forcing others to believe in her twisted doctrine.
* BadPowersGoodPeople: Post-Season 5, while Starlight is clearly trying to be a good guy now, she has a lot of dangerous spells at her disposal and she undoubtedly still has her Cutie Mark Removal spell. Applejack even admits that they can't just let her go with all the power she has. That, and while Starlight is very remorseful and apologetic, she is still rather unhinged and has [[FriendlessBackground no real friends to turn to]].
* BarrierWarrior: Starlight can use standard shield spells to protect herself, but she can also conjure a massive hexagonal shield, that can unleash a massive magical explosion to counterattack. And on at least one occasion, she and Twilight fused their barrier spells to create a powerful shield that not only protected their students, but also repelled the puckwudgies, similar to how Cadance and Shining Armor repelled the Changelings.
* BewareTheSuperman: Starlight's magical talent at least rivals Twilight's, and her knowledge of spells might even exceed Twilight's. Starlight demonstrates how dangerous a villain with that kind of power would be; unlike Twilight, she's willing to radically mess with the laws of nature. This is also why the Mane Six decide to help reform her so that her power can be used for good instead of by a dangerous enemy.
* BroughtDownToNormal:
** In the Season 6 finale, Starlight is crippled by the Changeling Kingdom AntiMagic field. Her magical abilities, which she heavily relies on, are entirely useless, forcing her to guile her way through.
** Also in "Mirror Magic": upon stepping out of the portal, Starlight Glimmer is turned into a human like Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle before her. This means she no longer has her unicorn magic, and unlike the Equestria Girls, she has no other special power. She has to rely on her ingenuity alone to save Sunset Shimmer and her friends.
* CastFromHitPoints: Whenever Starlight gets upset, she can turn her emotion into a magic cloud and capture it into a bottle to calm herself down and prevent herself from lashing out. However, if she uses it too much, she becomes severely weakened and lethargic, and [[HeroicRROD her magic becomes much weaker as well]].
* CombatPragmatist: In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", [[spoiler:she holds her own against the powered-up Chrysalis first by utilizing TeleportSpam, then by collapsing a snowdrift on top of her]].
* DarkMagicalGirl: Spectacularly proficient in magic, but lacks the necessary social skills to make friends, leading to a FriendlessBackground and stint as a dictator with a twisted view on friendship. [[spoiler:Starlight's greatest fear is exposed when Twilight shows her [[NothingIsScarier the barren wasteland]] in a BadFuture. Starlight is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone visibly distraught]] and starts to break down, confirming that she hates total loneliness above anything else.]] After this, her magical girl foil (a.k.a. Twilight) succeeds in befriending and redeeming her.
* EmotionalPowers: Starlight reveals in "All Bottled Up" that she uses her emotions to increase her magical strength.
* FountainOfYouth: In "Uncommon Bond", Starlight invents a spell that de-ages her and Sunburst back into foals (although it's implied that's mostly an illusion).
* TheGift: She either rivals or slightly surpasses Twilight in magical ability, who is currently said to be nearly as powerful as Star Swirl The Bearded, the most powerful Unicorn in history. Starlight doesn't have alicorn magic like Twilight, and is much younger than, and hasn't lived to study spells for nearly as long as Star Swirl. Starlight is just a prodigy and states that she has always been something of a natural when it comes to magic.
* InexplicablyAwesome: She is a unicorn who is equal to or greater than Twilight or Sunset (both powerful former personal students of Celestia and one of them now an alicorn) in magic. She is able to duplicate herself, which is something that Trixie could not do even while her magic was boosted by the Alicorn Amulet (albeit it could be said this doesn't count as she doesn't actually duplicate herself, but uses an illusionary image of herself and a speed spell to appear to be duplicated), with no outside help, and she was able to improve Starswirl's time-travel spell. The second part of the Season 7 premiere explains this as an example of EmotionalPowers. She was using her emotions to strengthen her magic (for example, her hatred at cutie marks after losing touch with Sunburst allowed her enough power to remove them, as Trixie lampshades), and implies she could not have held her own against Twilight in their duel if it weren't for her rage boosting her.
* InformedAbility: Inverted. The season 7 finale has Starlight tell us that she can read Star Swirl's atrocious horn-writing because her own is much worse. As text is seldom shown on the show, it's not likely that we'll ever be able to compare and contrast anyone's writing style.
* MagicStaff: Uses the Staff of Sameness to remove cutie marks, but it's an ordinary piece of wood that she only claimed was an ancient artifact; Starlight's own magic is the cause.
* ManOfKryptonite: Her PowerNullifier abilities make her this to any adult pony in the show, as even a powerful alicorn princess can lose her magic and get severely weakened physically by her Cutie Mark Removal spell (course it has no combat application in most circumstances as she needs an object capable of holding the cutie mark).
* MindRape: Stealing a pony's cutie mark also robs them of their special talent and dulls down their personality, to the point Applejack can't make countryisms and Pinkie Pie can't get excited. However, the spell doesn't directly allow control of another pony's mind, so Starlight also locks dissenting citizens of the village in a cottage listening to her propaganda on a loudspeaker until they submit.
* MoreThanMindControl: Her influence over her followers seems to be a combination of her magic, indoctrination, and her using her words to convince them that her way is best. She can take their cutie marks away by force, but she has to convince them that her ideology is worth following.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: With each appearance, Starlight shows off her innovation in new magic spells. Cutie Mark Removal in her first appearance, levitation and time travel in her second, then in "No Second Prances" she knows magic that can make Ponies [[MotorMouth talkative]] and put things together effortlessly. By "Every Little Thing She Does" she demonstrates powers such as super speed, self-duplication and mind control, and in "All Bottled Up" we learn she can use EmotionSuppression. Unfortunately, Starlight's liberal use of magic has only turned other ponies off, making it difficult for her to make friends.
* NotQuiteFlight: While she can't fly through conventional means, her skill in self-levitation is such that she might as well be able to. She's not as fast as a pegasus, but she can maintain her levitation for long periods of time effortlessly, and she is very agile in the air.
* PowerBornOfMadness: "All Bottled Up" heavily implies her sudden StoryBreakerPower in "The Cutie Re-Mark" came from her sheer VillainousBreakdown post-"The Cutie Map."
* ThePowerOfHate: "All Bottled Up" suggests that Starlight was able to strip other ponies of their cutie marks because her own intense hatred for cutie marks fueled her magic enough to accomplish that feat. The same can also be said for her being able to battle Twilight to a stand-still in "The Cutie Re-Mark", as her anger towards Twilight and her friends for foiling her plans previously allowed her to channel her magic to such a degree that she could face an Alicorn on even footing.
* ProjectileSpell: Unsurprisingly for somepony as magically talented as she is, she can cast beams as offensive spells.
* RealityWarper: Nothing like [[TheOmnipotent Discord]], [[DomainHolder King Sombra]], [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower "Inspiration Manifestation" Rarity]], etc., but she can still teleport, [[spoiler:TimeTravel]], transmute objects, etc.
* SelfDuplication: Starlight can pull this off by combining the spells ''Simulo Duplexis'' along with her SuperSpeed spell. However, the extent of Starlight's spell only goes so far as to just copying herself, and not actual cloning.
* SquishyWizard: Starlight is a magical powerhouse, but when her opponent has AntiMagic and a size advantage, her only option is to run and hide.
* StoryBreakerPower: PlayedForDrama. Starlight is strong enough to keep up with alicorns handily, and her powers include changing a pony's cutie marks (along with associated personality traits and magical talent), travelling through time, SuperSpeed, making illusionary copies of herself, advanced usage of teleportation and telekinesis, powerful shield spells, and mentally dominating other ponies. She could resolve most any conflict with her magic, which is a major crux of her character; most of Starlight's centric episodes involve her quickly resorting to magic to solve a problem she's encountering, and it usually backfires and makes the situation worse (due to the magic having effects she didn't expect, her not considering the obvious consequences, and other reasons). This is why a major aspect of her CharacterDevelopment is learning to ''not'' resort to using magic all the time and try to find other ways to deal with her problems. In addition, she was also stated to be reliant on her channeling her own emotions like rage or revenge to make her most impressive feats (like the cutie mark removal spell and dueling an alicorn on equal footing) possible, meaning she actually can't invoke her strongest magic at will for every situation.
* StrongAndSkilled: Not only is she one of the most powerful unicorns in the series, she also has the reflexes and versatility to effectively use her abilities in high-stress situations. As a result, her track record battling against opponents of comparable or greater power level is pretty good, fighting Twilight to a standstill and lasting for some time in single combat against a powered-up Chrysalis.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: When first introduced as a villain, she can remove ponies cutie marks, and upon her reappearance fight an alicorn (and the Element of Magic at that) to a standstill. One season and a HeelFaceTurn later, she has to hide from a couple of normal changeling impersonators, even before the AntiMagic throne comes into play. Later on, it's outright stated she was only able to pull off things like removing cutie marks and match Twilight in a fight because she was channeling her ''immense'' desire for revenge against both straight into magical strength. Starlight augments her magic through her emotions, which means it can be unreliable.
* SuperpowerLottery: Looks like Twilight Sparkle wasn't the only pony who won it. Starlight is very talented in magic herself, being able to perform innovative spells like Cutie Mark Removal and Time Travel, as well as give Princess Twilight Sparkle, an already well-known magical prodigy alicorn, a run for her money in a duel despite being an average unicorn. However, her magical strength is greatly impaired if her emotions are not focused and can become outright dangerous when they are a bit ''[[RevengeBeforeReason too focused]]'' or they happen to run out of control. It's one of the main reasons why Twilight makes her a pupil in the first place.
* SuperSpeed: Her magic spell ''Accelero'', which lets her move at high speed.
* {{Teleportation}}: She is able to teleport a magical scroll that Spike is holding to her. In "No Second Prances", she assists Trixie with her magic act by teleporting her as needed. She is seen teleporting her own body like Twilight in "A Hearth's Warming Tail", although it is as her alter ego Snowfall Frost. By "Every Little Thing She Does" she proves she has learned not only to teleport her own body but to do so as well as Twilight can (thanks to Twilight teaching her).
* TeleportSpam: She makes use of this several times in "The Ending of the End", [[spoiler:first during her one-on-one duel against Chrysalis and later to divert the villains while she frees the other heroes from prison]].
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: She's very talented with unicorn magic, and as such, tends to use it for all of her problems. As "No Second Prances" reveals, this can sometimes lead to Starlight making rather rash and impulsive decisions. "All Bottled Up" even has Starlight try to solve a problem of not using magic by using even more magic.
* WorfHadTheFlu: Starlight's magic is shut off when she is exposed to an AntiMagic field given off by Queen Chrysalis' throne in "To Where and Back Again", so she's not quite as effective as she could be. She still manages to pull through, thanks to her guile.
* WrongContextMagic:
** Cutie marks have been previously demonstrated to be powerful, innate magic to pony-kind. Attempts to force them tends to backfire in terrible ways, and previously nothing short of completely draining a pony's magic was sufficient to remove them. Starlight Glimmer is a seemingly ordinary unicorn who can somehow control this kind of magic.
** Also, in "The Cutie Re-Mark", she manages to pull off extended TimeTravel, something that was stated in "It's About Time" to be fundamentally impossible ([[TakeAThirdOption though she gets around this problem]] by [[AmplifierArtifact linking the spell directly into Twilight's map and by extension the Tree of Harmony itself]]). In addition, "What About Discord?" states that using time travel is [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique extremely dangerous]], something that Starlight doesn't seem to care about just because of her desire for revenge. [[spoiler:However, she comes around when she sees what her revenge against the Mane Six has done to Equestria as a whole.]]
** She also demonstrates a talent for combining different spells, with results that range from cool to mind-blowingly disastrous.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Relationships]]
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: In "The Parent Map", Starlight's father, Firelight is revealed to be this, constantly treating his daughter like she's still a foal, even in public.
* ArchEnemy: Chrysalis is her arch-enemy as of "To Where and Back Again", with Chrysalis trying to exact revenge in "The Mean Six", and finally have a one-on-one duel in "The Ending of the End."
* BirdsOfAFeather: Unsurprisingly, she and Sunset hit it off almost right off the bat when they meet.
* CommonalityConnection:
** Twilight Sparkle takes an interest in Starlight Glimmer as a student as well as a kindred spirit, both being very magically powerful unicorns (or rather a unicorn and an ex-unicorn-turned-alicorn) who can practice magic together.
** She bonds with Trixie due to this, as they both have dark pasts that they're trying to get over. They even have a similar snarky, playful sense of humor.
** Princess Luna identifies with Starlight, due to them having similar pasts and worries. Luna even says outright that she sees a lot of herself in Starlight.
** Starlight forms a bond with Maud Pie due to the fact that they are both lifelong outcasts with interests that most other ponies don't enjoy, and share a dislike for openly expressing their feelings.
* CompanionCube: In "A Horse Shoe In", Starlight has one in the form of Phyllis; a philodendron that she adores and talks to... [[spoiler:and which ends up being trashed by Trixie at the very end]].
* EvilCounterpart: For Twilight, as the ruler of another town where she forcibly imposes her ideas about friendship on the people, in contrast to Twilight's role in Ponyville. Twilight was initially uninterested in friendship, while Starlight is obsessed with her own twisted version. Twilight has many close friends whose special talents she respects, though she was originally an introvert, while Starlight tries to "equalize" an entire town, and has ambitions to do so for the world. Twilight is a regular unicorn who becomes a special alicorn princess, while Starlight is a unicorn who pretends to be more equal than she actually is. Her name also serves as a synonym for Twilight's, and she looks like a PaletteSwap of Twilight, even having a similar streak in her mane. She also has great magical power as well, like Twilight, and the eight-pointed star that's part of her cutie mark has the same colors as the star that makes up Twilight's. Both also seem to have [[SuperOCD Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies]], but where Twilight's are minor and well-controlled, Starlight's are taken to an extreme to the point of trying to turn her entire town into a harmonic, orderly "utopia".
* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Out of the Mane Six, Starlight mostly interacts with Twilight and Spike. As she's learning about friendship as Twilight's pupil and roommate, it would make a lot of sense for her to be making more of an effort to bond with the rest of the Mane Six, however she usually only meets them through Twilight or when she tags along as the Mane Six go on two-parter adventures, but seeing her in a one-on-one with the primary cast in SliceOfLife stories is more rare (She has [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E4RockSolidFriendship spent time with Pinkie Pie]] however, who is friends with ''everyone''). Part of the reason is that for most of Season 6 she's an AbsenteeActor and generally only appears in any given episode if she's important to the plot, while Season 7 gives her more secondary roles and the occasional {{Cameo}}. Even then her only real established relationships outside the Mane Six (sans Twilight and Spike) are with Trixie, Sunburst, Thorax, Maud (all of who have guest star status) and Sunset, [[TheProtagonist the main character]] of the SpinOff [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls series]], who has not appeared in ''Friendship Is Magic''). Season 8 compensates for this by having her interact more with the rest of the Mane Six in certain episodes (with Fluttershy in "Horse Play", Applejack and Rarity in "The Mean 6" and Rainbow Dash and Rarity in "The End in Friend").
* HonoraryTrueCompanion: Starlight is an interesting case. Like Spike, she doesn't have an Element of Harmony and she lives with Twilight, but she's gotten more character focus than him since her addition to the show (especially in the "higher stakes" two-parter episodes) in a way that would be typical of many a SixthRanger addition in most other media. However, when it comes to her relationship with the Mane Six, the show tends to keep them separate as she's seen hanging with them even less compared to him. Although the show seems to make a distinction between her and the other Mane Cast, to compensate, her own focus episodes tend to follow her with her own set of friends instead. In the season 8 episode "The Mean 6", she is included on the Mane Six's "friendship retreat", which includes camping out by the Tree of Harmony, right next to the Elements that brought the Mane Six together in the first place.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: All the Mane 6 are friends with Spike, but Starlight is unique in that her interactions with him are as equals or sometimes her treating him as her superior. He often gives her advice, she treats him with the utmost respect, and he makes a point in several episodes to check on her mental wellbeing. [[FridgeBrilliance Given that Twilight is her teacher and Spike is Twilight's assistant, it'd make sense why she'd hold him in higher regard.]]
* LovelyAssistant: In "No Second Prances", she becomes the "great and powerful assistant" to Trixie and helps her perform tricks such as the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive.
* MasterApprenticeChain: She is a student in the Magic of Friendship to Twilight Sparkle, who was formerly a student of this subject to Celestia. [[spoiler:In "The Beginning of the End", Twilight plans to make Starlight the new headmare of the School of Friendship after she and her friends succeed Celestia and Luna as Equestria's rulers.]]
* OddFriendship:
** With Maud Pie, of all ponies.
** Even moreso with Discord. She's very ordered and structured, while Discord's entire raison d'être is Chaos. However, after their adventure together fighting the Changelings, he seems keen to spend time with her, and she, in turn, is shown to be amused by some of his playful antics.[[note]]Although considering her rather impulsive and liberal use of magic, and the chaotic results that often follow, it is possible that they are NotSoDifferent.[[/note]]
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: She had previously met Maud Pie when founding her village, long before Maud's sister played a hand in Starlight's downfall. And, while it isn't remarked upon, Starlight's best friend Trixie once worked on the Pie rock farm.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Starlight seems to have a knack for befriending characters who could be considered social outcasts. There's Sunburst, an introverted wizard who's bad at magic, Trixie, an egocentric JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Maud Pie, an [[AmbiguousDisorder ambiguously autistic]] pony who is obsessed with rocks, Discord, possibly the only other character who could match Trixie in the "egocentric JerkWithAHeartOfGold" category and Thorax, a NiceGuy amidst a race of cut-throat [[EmotionEater Emotion Eaters]]. Especially obvious in "To Where and Back Again", where Starlight ends up leading a team of Trixie, Discord and Thorax to [[spoiler:save their friends from Queen Chrysalis,]] in what many fans have described as "Pony Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}".
* ShipTease: She has ''plenty'' of this with her old friend, Sunburst.
** In the fourth issue of ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyLegendsOfMagic'', she shows up upset about his ignoring her messages and not spending time together (in a similar vein to a girl whose boyfriend missed a date). When she hears that Sunburst is reading never-before-heard legends, she proceeds to park herself on his bed, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything telling him "You may proceed"]]. The issue even ends with the two going out to dinner together.
** In the final panel of the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWHolidays2017 2017 holiday special comic]], she and Sunburst are shown standing side-by-side, gazing at each other while sharing a very sweet smile.
** In "The Parent Map", Sunburst is nearly reduced to tears when Starlight answers "no" on whether she's excited to go on a mission with him. She near-instantly realizes how that sounded and quickly reassures him that while she ''is'' excited on going with him, her reluctance is because of the ''where'', their old hometown (to where Sunburst also does not look forward to going.) The two of them also have some easy-going, affectionate contact throughout the episode.
** [[spoiler:In "A Horse Shoe In", Starlight has a ''very'' big smile on her face when Sunburst agrees to be her new vice-headmare.]]
* SixthRanger: Rather, the ''Seventh'' Ranger including Spike. Following her reformation at the end of Season 5, in Season 6 she's moved into Twilight's castle in Ponyville and has been integrated into the main cast. While Starlight is part of Twilight's circle of friends, an episode focusing on the Mane Six is just as likely to include Starlight in the group as not, but she's still a recurring character of importance and frequency comparable to the Mane Six or the Cutie Mark Crusaders. If she's actually considered a "main character" internally has been subject to a FlipFlopOfGod.
* TheSpock: Starlight Glimmer takes a cold and logical approach to a lot of things. As a villain, she did believe what she was doing was ForTheGreaterGood, even if it was ''horribly'' misguided. Even after her HeelFaceTurn, Starlight thinks logically and even tends to overthink things too much to point where she [[ComicallyMissingThePoint misses the point entirely]], and her lack of tact makes her come off as [[InnocentlyInsensitive totally insensitive]] to others. In "No Second Prances", she casts a spell on [[TheQuietOne Big Macintosh]] to make him [[MotorMouth talk more]], her reasoning being she can't interact with someone who doesn't talk much, and in "Every Little Thing She Does" her spell shenanigans was only due to her lack of flexibility and wanting to get her Friendship Lessons done at once in an efficient matter to please her mentor, Princess Twilight. Of course, Starlight's cold logic and tendency to pull the trigger on ''any'' solution regardless of ethics does [[WhatTheHellHero put her at odds]] with her friends, but she always makes it up to them.
* VitriolicBestBuds: She and Trixie have become this by Season 7. Trixie's uncaring attitude and refusal to take responsibility for her mistakes annoy Starlight to the point of literally bottling her anger to keep Trixie from knowing about it. Later, the two begin to throw jabs at each other, including Starlight bring up that Trixie "has accepted she's [[AlwaysSecondBest second best]] compared to Twilight". Despite this though they still care about each other and continue to help in their own way.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* EleventhHourRanger:
** In "The Crystalling – Part 2", Starlight Glimmer proves instrumental to saving the day by managing to talk Sunburst out of his funk and using her magic with Twilight and the other Princesses in the process of fixing the Crystal Heart.
** In "To Where and Back Again", Starlight is forced into this role [[spoiler:when the Mane Six and the Royal Family are captured by the Changelings]].
* AllUpToYou:
** In the DarkestHour during the Season Six finale [[spoiler:The rescue team becomes a DwindlingParty, as one by one, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax are captured by the Changelings. The last one remaining is Starlight, who has to face [[BigBad Queen Chrysalis]] by herself.]]
** Again in "Mirror Magic", where the Equestria Girls are captured in a mirror.
* ArcVillain: Of Season 5. Unlike the others, she isn't reformed or depowered by the end of the two-parter, and returns in the season finale. While she only appears in these episodes, with the season's overarching focus on cutie marks, she serves as a thematic villain to tie into the season's story arc.
* BigBad: Of season 5. The only major antagonist to be the key villain of both the two-part season premiere and the two-part season finale. While she's only the villain in these episodes, she makes some notable blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos in a few episodes spying on Twilight, meaning while she isn't playing a direct role in the rest of the season her shadow is looming over things the whole time.
* BigBrotherIsWatching: She has spies in the village watching for dissenters and imprisons them until they submit again.
* BigShutUp: A simultaneously funny and nightmarish example directed at Twilight.
-->'''Twilight:''' Everypony has unique talents and gifts! And when we share them with each other, that's how we--\\
'''Starlight:''' ''[furious]'' '''''QUIET!'''''\\
''[Twilight gives an appropriate 0_0 face]''
* BlowingARaspberry: In "The Ending of the End - Part 2". As she is avoiding magic blasts with TeleportSpam, Starlight Glimmer sticks her tongue at the villains to further infuriate and distract them.
* TheCameo:
** She makes an easy-to-miss appearance in "Amending Fences", sitting at a nearby table to Twilight and her old friends with her face covered by a menu, and apparently keeping an eye on Twilight.
** She makes a second split-second appearance in "What About Discord?", where she can be seen spying on Twilight, Discord and the others with a pair of binoculars from a bush in the background.
** She makes an easily seen appearance in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 the movie]], during the song "We Got This Together", watching Trixie launch fireworks, and is with her during the credits.
* ChaosIsEvil: She's an inverse of this trope, with her whole philosophy being about how "evil" the chaos of difference and disagreements are, to the point she's willing to [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul brainwash ponies]] into thinking that having everything that makes them special taken away is a ''good thing''. Even after her HeelFaceTurn chaos and disorder still clearly unsettle her, and most of her less moral actions are done in an effort to force consensus and harmony.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[TheBusCameBack She's back as the villain for the season 5 finale.]]
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist:
** Every previous BigBad in the series has been increasingly ObviouslyEvil, threatening, and heinous; Starlight [[{{Pun}} bucks those trends]]. She's able to [[BitchInSheepsClothing pass for a benevolent, normal unicorn]], has only a single, situational ability that let her be a major villain, and operated under a [[WellIntentionedExtremist seemingly altruistic ideology]] that she seems sincere enough in selling to defend even when ousted as a hypocrite.
** On a more direct level, she is this to the Dazzlings of ''Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks''. The Dazzlings' methods involved having others embrace their individual differences to the point of driving friends apart, while Starlight goes to the opposite extreme of having others deny their differences to the point of creating an extremely twisted version of friendship.
** Starlight also contrasts the other villains in defeat: While all the previous villains in the show had to be defeated by the season's/movie's magical {{MacGuffin}}s or an EleventhHourSuperpower, and banished/imprisoned/destroyed, Twilight's attempts to actually fight Starlight Glimmer head-on with magic made no progress or just made things worse. Starlight Glimmer is finally defeated when Twilight Sparkle gives up fighting and reasons with her, the final blow delivered when she offers Starlight her friendship.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Her village seems pleasant and peaceful, but even at a glance it's obvious something is wrong. The deeper the Mane Six probe, the worse it looks. [[spoiler:Her time-travelling shenanigans in the two-parter season finale appears to have turned all of Equestria into this]].
* CryCute:
** She invokes this in "The Cutie Re-Mark", when Twilight starts to get through to her.
** She goes into this again in "The Crystalling", when she confesses her sins to Sunburst.
** And a third time in "No Second Prances", when she learns [[spoiler:Trixie had become her friend just to beat Twilight.]]
* {{Cult}}: She has a number of similarities to a cult leader, especially her MoreThanMindControl of her followers.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:She is on the receiving end of one from Queen Chrysalis during "To Where and Back Again – Part 2". With her magic drained all she can do is run and hide from Chrysalis, and can't beat her in a hoof-to-hoof fight. All Chrysalis needs to do to beat her is grab her by the tail and slam her to the ground. She's ultimately only able to win by getting Thorax to willingly give love energy to Chrysalis, overpowering her and changing Thorax into the new King.]]
* CurbStompCushion: In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", [[spoiler:Starlight is ultimately defeated pretty quickly by Chrysalis once Chrysalis lands more than a glancing blow on her, but she does make Chrysalis work for victory by using TeleportSpam and collapsing a snowdrift on top of her]].
* DarkerAndEdgier: On the one hand, her physical threat level is significantly below the rest of the arc villains. However, she's much more of a cerebral threat than them, preaching a message about false friendship that amounts to inflicting MindRape on everypony. Her debut has many allusions to totalitarianism, cults, and government control in her methods and ideology.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Starlight was an ArcVillain enemy who actually imprisoned the Mane Six in her village to brainwash them, and after her first defeat outright despised them enough [[RevengeBeforeReason to jump start a revenge plot against them]]. After surrendering, she ends up forgiven by the Mane Six and [[SixthRanger becomes one of their strongest allies]].
* DemotedToExtra:
** In [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 the movie]]. Especially notable in her case, since she's a major character on the show. This is due at least in part to the fact that the movie began production before Season 5 started airing, and thus its plot was being written before the decision to redeem Starlight was made and she became a major character.
** She also suffers this in the IDW comics, often going for several issues without making an appearance.
* {{Denouement}}:
** In "The Crystalling", she finally faces her fears, comes to grips with the mistakes of her past and rekindles her friendship with Sunburst. In doing so, she completes her first friendship lesson, and closes the chapter on her former dark ways.
** In "To Where and Back Again", Starlight gets over her insecurity regarding her HeelFaceTurn and has finally accepted that she really is a different pony from what she used to be, and no longer having to bear a guilt trip. She joins in the Sunset Festival of her old village.
* DidntSeeThatComing: While she's pretty clever, she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the Mane Six would be able to outsmart her without their cutie marks. Justified as her worldview doesn't allow for much belief that an Equalized pony might be smarter than an unequalized one, or that VitriolicBestBuds can be real friends, the latter of which allows Fluttershy to become a FakeDefector.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of her biggest flaws.
** Subverted with her plan in the Season 5 finale. While her plan was very effective and clever, she fails to consider the [[ButterflyOfDoom disastrous consequences time travel could have]], and she vastly underestimates the importance of the Mane 6’s friendship to Equestria. In other words, while her plan itself was very well-thought out and effective, she did not thoroughly consider the ''consequences'' of said plan.
** Subsequently in Seasons 6 onwards, Starlight is shown to be a pony that acts first, asks questions later, which she is well aware that this has gotten herself in trouble. This is central to episodes such as "Every Little Thing She Does", "All Bottled Up", and "A Royal Problem".
** This is actually theorized as a positive in "A Royal Problem". Most would never even consider messing with the Princesses, risking their anger, or taking a course of action which would actually force the two into conflict (considering what happened last time). Luna points out however that it actually worked out, and guesses this is why she was chosen by the map in the first place.
** The ''Equestria Girls'' special "Mirror Magic" justifies this somewhat, with Starlight admitting that she prefers to live in the moment and not worry about what bad things ''might'' happen in the future. That kind of mindset doesn't really leave much room for forethought.
** In "To Change a Changeling", Starlight decides to lure the maulwurf to the reformed changeling hive so that Pharynx can save the day and be accepted by the hive. She finds out too late that the Pharynx had left, leaving the hive open to attack and putting everybody in danger. Lampshaded at the end where Starlight outright admits that it was a terrible plan when [[WhatTheHellHero Thorax called her out on it]].
** Averted in the Season 7 finale, where she actually acts as the voice of reason when she feels Twilight shouldn't interfere with Star Swirl's spell. Given her past experience with Star Swirl's spells though, this is probably justified.
* EasilyForgiven:
** True to the nature of the show, the Mane Six forgive Starlight Glimmer for all of the trouble she caused. In the same episode they show it is a downplayed trope. They point out that even though Starlight has turned over a new leaf and is very remorseful, she is still a volatile mixture of [[FriendlessBackground friendless]], [[SuperpowerLottery insane power]] and talent. Worst of all, Starlight has NoSocialSkills whatsoever; letting her go free would be a mistake. Princess Twilight takes Starlight in as a student in the study of friendship, [[SixthRanger starting with]] the Mane Six and Spike. Starlight herself lampshades this in "The Crystalling", still surprised that Twilight Sparkle was able to forgive her so quickly.
** Downplayed in "Every Little Thing She Does", where Starlight makes a catastrophic mistake mind-controlling her friends with a magic spell. The Mane Six are rightfully pissed off at her, and Starlight has to really work to earn their forgiveness, which she manages to pull off.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: FakeDefector Fluttershy douses Starlight Glimmer with water. She gets just enough water on her to wash away her fake cutie mark, exposing her as a fraud to the public.
* ExBigBad: The major villain of Season 5, became Twilight Sparkle's student in Season 6, and becomes [[HeroesFrontierStep a full-fledged hero]] at the end of Season 6.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Her name is ''Starlight Glimmer''. With a name like that, you wouldn't expect "manipulative, sociopathic dictator" and season-wide BigBad, but she is, or rather was. Starlight averts this later when she turns good, to reflect her friendly-sounding name.
* {{Foil}}:
** To [[spoiler: Stygian, who, like her, was a Seventh Ranger to a group of six heroes who wanted to help them defend Equestria. However, while Starlight is a magical prodigy who ended up using her powers for evil means, Stygian had no power of his own and tried to perform a ritual to gain it, and for it was cast out and turned to evil. Their similarities are a major plot point in "Shadow Play" that serve to help convince Twilight that the Pony of Shadows could be redeemed instead of just banished.]]
%% Observe Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment -- this isn't the place for a Starlight vs Sunset argument
** To Sunset Shimmer from the ''Equestria Girls'' spin-off. Like Sunset, Starlight is a former antagonist that reformed, underwent a redemption arc, and joined the main cast. However, Sunset has become the main protagonist of the ''Equestria Girls'' spin-off and is usually considered the "leader" of that circle of friends, whereas Starlight is a supporting character to Twilight's group and only steps into a leadership role when she has to. Additionally, Sunset settled into the same circle of friends as Twilight Sparkle herself has, while Starlight prefers to make new friends with people outside her current social circle. In their villainous days, they also both served as {{Evil Counterpart}}s to Twilight, but in different ways; Sunset reflected Twilight's royal title and relationship with Celestia, and Starlight reflected her leadership and magical prowess. In "Mirror Magic" the two meet and become friends; when Sunset confides in starlight's she's worried there's some danger on the horizon her friends have been given powers to fight, Starlight advises she doesn't try to worry about an unknown future and prefers to enjoy the present.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Starlight is the only pony in town to not have her coloring desaturated, has a natural smile, and her house is set apart from theirs. It's because she's not like them; she still has her cutie mark.
** In ''Every Little Thing She Does'', there are kites hanging up in Starlight's room. Episodes later, in ''Rock Solid Friendship'' its revealed that Starlight actually [[HiddenDepths has a fondness]] for kite flying. WordOfGod confirms this to be deliberate.
* FreakOut:
** She has a minor one in "No Second Prances" after her initial attempts to make a new friend all fail (in the middle of a public area, no less).
--->'''Starlight:''' ''[to herself]'' Stop stressing... [[SuddenlyShouting STOP STRESSING!]] ''[the other ponies stare at her]''
** In "Every Little Thing She Does", the pressure of dealing with her friendship lessons and the chaos surrounding the constant demands of her friends cause an already slipping Starlight to lose it and try to use a mind-control spell to do them all at once.
** She has a worse one in part one of "To Where and Back Again", where all the requests for guidance from the ponies of Our Town overwhelm her. She uses her magic to push them all back, then cowers on the ground.
* TheGlomp: In "A Horse Shoe In".
** After Twilight [[spoiler:makes Starlight's position as future headmare official]], Starlight tackles both her and Spike, and hugs them tightly.
** She also gives Trixie a tight hug after [[spoiler:hiring Sunburst as vice-headmare]].
* GoneHorriblyRight:
** For destroying her "perfect" village which she saw as a haven of friendship, Starlight decides to destroy the Mane Six's friendship. [[spoiler:However, she didn't realize how important that bond is; due to the ButterflyEffect, the loss of the Mane Six' friendship results in doom for Equestria across several alternate timelines.]]
** In "Every Little Thing She Does", Starlight Glimmer uses a mind-control spell on the Mane Five in an attempt to get all of her friendship lessons done at once. It works ''too well'' as the spell makes her friends LiteralMinded, causing them to screw things up and make a mess.
* HappinessIsMandatory: She makes all of the residents in town put on ear-to-ear smiles. Pinkie Pie immediately notices that something's not right with them.
* HeelFaceTurn: Pulled in "The Cutie Remark", and solidified in "The Crystalling", where she completes her first friendship lesson. Solidified further in "To Where and Back Again" where she [[spoiler:saves Equestria from Chrysalis and reforms the entire changeling race in the process.]]
* HeroesFrontierStep: Starlight crosses it in "To Where and Back Again", where ''[[WorfHadTheFlu without her magic]]'', she manages to lead a successful rescue mission with her friends, as well as [[spoiler: teaching the Changelings how to love]]. This was Starlight's first true act of heroism, making up for all of her previous deeds as a villain, and inspires her with the confidence to [[{{Denouement}} finally accept]] that she really has become a good pony.
* HeroicRROD: She suffers one in "All Bottled Up" through her overuse of her EmotionSuppression spell. When her bottled up anger escapes, she is too weak to help Trixie when she is harassed by the other ponies ([[HatePlague who are under the influence of Starlight's anger]]). Only after facing up to her anger does this become undone.
* IconicSequelCharacter: She didn't appear until the fifth season of the series, and didn't become part of the regular cast until the season after. Starlight would go on to befriend Trixie, who despite being one of the earliest appearing characters in the show, didn't become a proper mainstay until that season as well.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: When Fluttershy pretends to be converted, Starlight asks her to point out the three villagers who told her about the cutie mark vault to prove her loyalty.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Twilight's attempt to invoke a HeelFaceTurn on her goes nowhere, though Twilight still had hope that getting some time to think it over will have an effect. Averted at the end of Season 5, where she finally gets the message.
* TheIllegible: According to herself. In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E25ShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play – Part 1]]", she has little trouble reading Star Swirl's diary since her own "hornwriting" is even worse. For comparison, Star Swirl's hornwriting was described as bordering on another language entirely, yet she describes his as "nowhere near as bad as [her's]".
* {{Irony}}:
** [[spoiler:She claims she lost her friend, Sunburst, due to him having a natural talent for magic. However, she is extremely apt at magic herself to the point she can even rival Twilight (a noted prodigy and alicorn princess to boot), and Sunburst isn't actually that good at it (which meant that his cutie mark caused him almost as much strife as it did Starlight).]]
** As a bad guy, Starlight rejected her initial shot at redemption and swore revenge on the Mane Six. [[spoiler:Fast forward to a season later and the roles are reversed. This time Starlight is the good guy offering the defeated villain, the now ex-Queen Chrysalis a second chance, who promptly rejects it and swears revenge against Starlight.]]
** Starlight Glimmer is very skilled when it comes to magic, but she has a hard time getting the hang of the magic of friendship, the most powerful magic of all.
** In "A Royal Problem", Starlight Glimmer gets called by the ''Cutie Map'' for the first time. Considering the very first Cutie Map mission is how the Mane Six met Starlight in the first place, and set in motion the events that ultimately made Starlight the team's SixthRanger, she has come around full circle.
** In "Fame and Misfortune", Starlight admits that the Cutie Mark Crusaders' plan to form a cutie mark summer camp is a "great idea". This is coming from a pony who once despised cutie marks.
* KirkSummation: Starlight delivers a pretty good one to pep talk the Changelings into a HeelRaceTurn in "To Where and Back Again":
-->'''Starlight Glimmer:''' I know what it's like to lead by fear and intimidation, and I know what it's like to want everypony to do what you say, but I was wrong! A real leader doesn't force her subjects to deny who they are. She celebrates what makes them unique and listens when one of them finds a better way!
* ManipulativeBitch: She uses a combination of speeches, propaganda, and emotional manipulation to sway ponies to her beliefs and get them to join her. She still shows some signs of this post-reformation; Eager to put off her reunion with Sunburst, she takes advantage of her NaiveNewcomer status and artfully talks Spike into telling her all about how he saved the Crystal Empire, thereby [[WeNeedADistraction distracting]] him from keeping on with the friendship lesson. Thankfully, Spike sees through her scheme and only sticks to one story, keeping the Friendship lesson going.
* MarriedToTheJob: In the season 9 episode "Student Counsel", she becomes so dedicated to her guidance counselor position that she wears a bracelet enchanted to alert her whenever someone knocks on her office door, allowing her to teleport back and attend to the problem. This keeps her from spending much time away from her job, deeply annoying Trixie.
* MotiveRant: She invokes this on several occasions -- the first when Fluttershy reveals to the town that she still has her cutie mark in spite of her claims that they're evil and the second is when she's cornered near the end, and is accompanied by a blast of magic. She gets a third when [[spoiler:Twilight shows her the end result of messing with the time stream.]] And a fourth time when she finally confesses her past to a shamed Sunburst. It's the very thing Sunburst needs to regain his confidence, as well as rekindling the friendship between them.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** [[spoiler:Twilight shows Starlight the end result of her changes if she doesn't stop -- ''a barren wasteland''. It takes talking some sense to her to fully realize her actions.]]
** In "Every Little Thing She Does", where Starlight realizes she made a horrible mistake using the mind control spell on her friends in a failed attempt to get her friendship lessons done quicker.
** In "A Royal Problem", Starlight impulsively swaps Celestia and Luna's Cutie Marks and while she initially tries to play it up as a good decision, she does regret it, made worse by the fact that ''Twilight'' is panicking over her dealing with her teacher and her sister, ends up suffering a nasty nightmare and is brought to tears over it. Although in the end the sisters thank her for doing it, because it did give them a chance to reconcile, Starlight acknowledges that things could have gone much worse because of what she did.
** In "Student Counsel", she is horrified when she believes dismissing Silverstream's request for assistance with a school project (due to Trixie insisting that she take a break from her work) may have led to her getting lost.
* NotSoDifferent:
** In "The Crystalling", she learns that she and Sunburst are this, as they both had past shames that they needed to confess to.
** She also invokes this with [[spoiler:Queen Chrysalis]] in "To Where and Back Again", as she once ruled her subjects through fear and intimidation, just as [[spoiler:Chrysalis]] does.
** And again with Juniper Montage in "Mirror Magic", acknowledging that she has felt the same overwhelming anger and desire for revenge as Juniper.
** She and Trixie try to invoke this with Pharynx in "To Change a Changeling", telling him of their own dark pasts, and how they've managed to move on from them. Pharynx is unimpressed, calling them both "losers".
** She invokes this again in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E26ShadowPlayPart2 Shadow Play – Part 2]]", telling [[spoiler: Stygian]] that she wasn't so different from him once, and that Twilight helped her, as she could help [[spoiler:Stygian]].
* OldShame: {{Invoked|Trope}} by "The Crystalling", she comes to view her previous actions as this, and tries to keep the details from Sunburst when they meet again.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: More or less a RunningGag. No matter how much she tries, Starlight Glimmer will ''never'' be able to escape being reminded of her dark past. [[InnocentlyInsensitive Trixie]] and other characters accidentally bring it up on occasion, and even meeting someone seemingly inconsequential or unrelated like ''Maud Pie'' ties it all the way back towards it, as it turns out, it was [[ForgottenFirstMeeting Maud Pie who told Starlight]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom where to find the anti-magic mineral cave to keep the cutie marks of her followers of Our Town]]. Poor Starlight just can't catch a break.
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:The Mane Six turn the tables on her with a FakeDefector gambit and by tricking her into an EngineeredPublicConfession.]]
* OutOfFocus:
** In Season 9, Starlight's screentime is noticeably diminished. She only gets two episodes centered on her ("Student Counsel" and "A Horse Shoe-In", and in both she shares the main role with Trixie), and is mostly relegated to cameos in the rest of episodes she appears in, with few, if any, supporting roles.
** She also suffers this in the comics, often being absent for several issues before making an appearance (and only having a role in one major storyline so far).
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: As of Season 8, she fills this role in the School of Friendship. As guidance counselor, Starlight has no classes to teach, and since the school is all about being good friends and understanding and trusting others, she doesn't get much to do since any problems a guidance counselor would normally handle are covered by school lessons. In "Marks for Effort," she jumps at the chance to offer Twilight help with an issue. When rejected, Starlight walks off talking about how she'll just go dust her office for the ''seventieth'' time. Later episodes suggest that this has changed; "Road to Friendship" shows several students lined up for counseling outside her office, with Starlight noting that she'll have to get somepony to cover her duties while she's on the road with Trixie.
* PowerNullifier: Her equal sign cutie mark replacements work like this, dampening the special talents the ponies once had. Even attempting to use those talents causes the cutie mark to react and suppress it, such as nullifying Fluttershy's attempts to talk to animals. However, unless the original cutie marks are kept contained, they'll immediately fly back to their owners and undo the spell.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: As of Season 6, she is now in the photograph sent to the Princesses.
* ThePunishmentIsTheCrime: Starlight gets this invoked upon her when she pulls a HeelFaceTurn in the Season Five finale. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Mane Six don't punish her for all the trouble she caused throughout the season, instead they [[EasilyForgiven forgive her]] and just give Starlight another chance at being Twilight Sparkle's pupil so she can learn about Friendship and be friends with them. This ends up [[CruelMercy eating at]] Starlight Glimmer in many ways worse than any punishment could, as throughout the following season, she constantly struggles with her guilt and being very haunted [[BeAllMySinsRemembered by the actions of her evil past]], and more or less is [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten forced to live with it]].
* RankUp: When Twilight opens the School of Friendship in Season 8, she appoints Starlight as its guidance counselor. Late in Season 9, as Twilight makes plans to move back to Canterlot for her coronation as Equestria's new ruler, she chooses Starlight to replace her as the School's headmare.
* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:Even after seeing the BadFuture her actions would cause, Starlight was still willing to go through with her plan, to the point of tearing up the scroll with the time travel spell on it to prevent Twilight and Spike from coming back to stop her. Fortunately, Twilight was able to get through to her before she tore the scroll completely, though it still took a LOT of negotiating before Starlight willingly stepped down.]]
* RunningGag:
** Nowadays, when Starlight Glimmer appears in an episode, you can be sure and certain that her "Our Town" scheme and time-travel plot will be brought up at least ''once''. It was played [[BeAllMySinsRemembered for dramatics]] in Season 6, but more or less has [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten become a recurring joke]] in Season 7.
** This even carries over to her ''Equestria Girls'' appearance, where's it's stacked against the past evil deeds Sunset Shimmer, Human Twilight and freshly defeated "villain" Juniper Montage, prompting Human Pinkie to lampshade just how forgiving their group really is.
* ShutUpKirk: Starlight responds ''twice'' with this to Twilight's PatrickStewartSpeech. First with a [[BigShutUp Big "QUIET!"]] and another time with a short MotiveRant and a magic blast.
* SlouchOfVillainy: In "The Cutie Re-Mark", she's sitting on Fluttershy's throne this way when Starlight directly confronts her.
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** [[spoiler:In "To Where and Back Again", Queen Chrysalis dealt with every pony who could possibly be a threat to her plans for conquering Equestria, except Starlight. Chrysalis didn't think Starlight was that much of a threat thanks to her PowerNullifier throne. Starlight manages to defeat her without magic anyway.]]
** [[spoiler:To a lesser extent in "The Ending of the End - Part 2". Discord arranges her escape from the cage the villains placed her in chiefly because she is the only one among their captives besides the Mane Five and Spike who still had magic, allowing her to free the others and buy time for Twilight's friends to reunite with her.]]
* SpecialGuest: Of the ''Equestria Girls'' "Mirror Magic" special. Where we see Starlight's human form for the first time.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Most episodes she takes part in she is also the central focus of the story. Starlight has roughly a third of the Sixth Season's runtime for herself, with the Premieres/Finales of both Season Five and Six focusing very heavily on her and even supplanting the Mane Six entirely for the Season Six finale. Season 7 seems to be easing her out of this, allowing her to have major roles in episodes without necessarily being the main focus, as can be seen with "Rock Solid Friendship" and "A Royal Problem", as well as giving her more minor roles in episodes.
* StealthPun: Her cutie mark has the same basic shape as the inequality symbol in mathematics.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
** She's the main-series counterpart to Sunset Shimmer. They're both {{Evil Counterpart}}s to Twilight, as reflected in their names and similar levels of magical talent and knowledge; they're similarly temperamental (Twilight's specialness seems to strike a BerserkButton in them both), and in the end both are shown the error of their ways and become TheSixthRanger in their respective Mane Casts. She also gets a new mane style in Season 6 that looks similar to Sunset's pony mane, and the socially awkward and insecure personality she develops immediately after turning good matches that of Sunset as well.
** She also has a little bit of Trixie in her, as she vowed revenge and sought out some powerful magic in order to fulfill her desire to get back at Twilight for upstaging her. In addition, she's eventually redeemed and forgiven. The only difference is that Starlight wasn't sent on her way, as she is considered too powerful and therefore too dangerous to be left alone.
** Starlight can also be considered a substitute for the original Unicorn Twilight from Seasons 1-3. The similar name, similar design, the SuperOCD tendencies in her personality, the lack of social background and [[NoSocialSkills naivete]], and the immense magical potential and ability that leads to her becoming being taken in as a student in the study of Friendship by an Alicorn Princess, just like Twilight originally was. She even sounds similar to Twilight in her voice post HeelFaceTurn.
*** This is even lampshaded in a few instances. Trixie outright calls Starlight "Mini Twilight" at one point (technically she is indeed slightly shorter than Twilight), Ember points out that Twilight and Starlight act and look very similar and in the Season 7 premiere, Twilight straight up tells Celestia, quote "After all, you were me, and I was Starlight." This is then taken UpToEleven when Ember cannot tell the difference between her and Twilight since they are so alike, stating they are purple ponies with purple hair, have similar cutie marks and similar names. In "A Matter of Principals", Discord places a wig modeled after Twilight's mane on Starlight's head, [[VisualPun visually driving the point]] home.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Starlight is no match for Queen Chrysalis and is cornered, so she tries to talk her into sharing love so the Changelings don't need to starve and steal love anymore. Chrysalis is having none of it, but fortunately for Starlight, her Changeling subjects are far more receptive to her idea.
* TearsOfRemorse: She shed lots of those during her VillainousBreakdown in the season five finale. [[spoiler:And once again when she finally confesses her insecurities and evil past to Sunburst.]]
* ThemeNaming: Has a similar name theme to Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. A name relating to a time of day/celestial body, and a second name relating to shining light (in regards to her magical abilities).
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The thing that sets her apart from prior other ArcVillain-level enemies: she's not ObviouslyEvil, she's not a supernatural entity, she's not even corrupted to the point of looking like a monster like Sombra. She's simply a normal unicorn with a somewhat warped worldview and access to powerful and disturbing magic. She uses this trope to her advantage in "Amending Fences", "What About Discord?" and during Twilight's lecture in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1", easily blending in the background.
* ThisCannotBe: Her reaction to Twilight blocking her spell with the same shield spell it took her years to learn, when Twilight only had to see it once to copy it.
* TodayXTomorrowTheWorld: While she's currently just the leader of a single little village on the outskirts of Equestria, her words hint at a greater scheme at work involving the rest of the country, particularly when she says "When the rest of Equestria sees that a princess gave up her cutie mark to join us, they'll finally understand what we're trying to accomplish."
* TheUnsmile: Not only does she frequently use these herself, she has a habit of plastering them on everypony across town.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: She wants to spread her idea of harmony and friendship across Equestria. Which means everypony giving up their cutie marks, and with them their unique personalities and special talents, to avoid dissent that could damage that harmony.
* VillainDecay: Zig-zagged in her second appearance. While Starlight returns magically more powerful and threatening than ever, to the point where she can fight Princess Twilight to a stalemate, (in addition to her already-established skills at manipulation and planning) she is notably a lot more unhinged, and her over-emotional nature, childish pettiness and single-minded thirst for revenge cause her to overlook the potential consequences of her plans. However, this actually ends up making her MORE dangerous as her actions unintentionally result in the repeated destruction of Equestria. Overall, while she became slightly less competent as a villain, she became a lot more DANGEROUS as a result.
* VillainExitStageLeft: When all else fails, she escapes into the mountain caves.
* VillainHasAPoint: Starlight Glimmer is entirely correct in saying that differences between ponies, especially differences in their special talents, causes conflict between ponies. That's the plot of half of the episodes in this show, after all, and the Mane Six demonstrate this fact quite well in their own arguments in this episode. What she doesn't get, however, is that true friends can work past those differences, which is exactly what the Mane Six do and what causes several townsponies to reveal the existence of the vault. She also has a point on how some people with different attributes act as though they are more superior to others and belittle others. Starlight's fault is how her "solution" is going overboard, eliminating the cause entirely instead of dealing with it.
* VillainousBreakdown:
** When Fluttershy reveals she still has her cutie mark, she loses it before the village and gives them a MotiveRant. She even continues giving it to them as she tries to escape and her mask slips more and more from there.
--->'''Starlight:''' I brought you friendship! I brought you equality! I created '''harmony!'''
** It gets worse when [[spoiler:Twilight shows her the end result of trying to mess with time itself.]] She goes into another MotiveRant and shows Twilight her StartOfDarkness, and it keeps getting worse until Twilight offers her hoof in friendship.
* VillainousBSOD: Starlight Glimmer is broken near the end of the Season 5 finale, not uttering a single word until she is called into the throne room to meet the Mane Six.
* VillainSong: "In Our Town", which she leads her village in singing, detailing her philosophy that only the equal can truly be friends.
* VocalEvolution: Since her HeelFaceTurn, Starlight's acting has naturally become more earnest and soft-spoken, compared to the creepily insincere affability of her first appearance (her mood swings still exist, but they sound far more comical and less sinister). Kelly Sheridan's voice for her has also become slightly quirkier and younger-sounding, likely to make her more uniform with the other main ponies.
* WalkingSpoiler: The fact that she performs a HeelFaceTurn in the Season 5 finale and becomes a recurring supporting protagonist in Season 6.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong:
** Starlight Glimmer's self-assuring attitude when it comes to casting her MindControl spell on the Mane Five in "Every Little Thing She Does", Thinking the Mane Six will thank her for getting the friendship lessons done quickly. Not only does Starlight fail to get her friendship lessons done, she causes a huge mess, she completely missed the point of the lessons entirely, and [[WhatTheHellHero all of her friends are royally ticked at her]]. Yes, a lot definitely could go (and went) wrong.
** In "A Royal Problem", Starlight tries to convince everyone (including herself) that switching the princesses' cutie marks on a whim was the right call in making them reconcile. The royal sisters (and Twilight) are ''not'' fine with her doing it, but Luna and Celestia decide to play along since they have no other option. It really falls apart when Starlight herself begins to think her actions might have actually driven them even further apart and she has a nightmare about the worst-case scenario.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Starlight gets slammed with this hard by her friends in "Every Little Thing She Does", where she uses a mind-control spell to get all of her friendship lessons done at once.
** When Starlight changes Celestia's and Luna's cutie marks, they immediately make their anger known, but begrudgingly agree to Starlight's idea of handling the other princess's duties for two days. Twilight also calls her out later in her room. In the end, the princesses manage to solve the issues between them and they end up thanking Starlight, although she herself also admits she did come dangerously close to messing everything up.
** She delivers one to Twilight in "Shadow Play – Part 2", after Star Swirl scoffs at Starlight's suggestion that [[spoiler:Stygian]] could be redeemed. He claims "once a villain, always a villain", in direct contrast to what Starlight learned as Twilight's pupil. Twilight, though visibly conflicted, doesn't speak up against her idol, which Starlight is quick to call her out for. Starlight, who had long since grown to appreciate the Mane Six for offering their friendship to her, is especially offended by this due to the sheer fact that she herself was once a bad guy.
--->'''Starlight:''' I guess I'm lucky your "idol" wasn't around when you decided to be my friend. I might've been banished to Limbo, too.
* WouldHurtAChild: During her time travel shenanigans, Starlight shot at a young Rainbow Dash at one occasion just to ensure she doesn't do the Sonic Rainboom.
* XMustNotWin: Played with. Even after seeing the after-effects her tampering with time will have on all of Equestria, she is still furiously obsessed with getting revenge on Twilight and even begins on slowly ripping the map in front of her just to ensure her "victory" is sealed. Twilight finally talks her down, but it takes a good deal of effort to break her out of it.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
** Being defeated once again, giving up her ideals for good, on top of witnessing the dire consequences of her actions, Starlight is left guilt-stricken and broken. She doesn't know what to do with herself anymore and is ready to face whatever punishment awaits her. Twilight and the others decide to bring her in, so they can show her the true benefits of Friendship. Twilight in particular seeing and noting Starlight's amazing talent and even greater potential that Starlight herself never noticed or realized. Starlight Glimmer is now Twilight's new pupil, effectively becoming a SixthRanger to the Mane Six.
** In "The Crystalling – Part 2", Starlight expresses disappointment after her initial attempts to reconcile with Sunburst don't work out and questions whether or not Twilight Sparkle was right in considering her worthy of friendship and giving her another chance as her pupil. Spike tells Starlight she is worth being friends with and encourages her to keep trying to reconcile with Sunburst. [[spoiler: Which she manages in the end]].
** In "To Where and Back Again", Trixie assures Starlight that she ''is'' a good leader, and that she must embrace her talent for it, despite her own fears. This pep talk is enough to convince Starlight to press on with the rescue mission.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Starlight Glimmer reluctantly takes charge when the rescue team quickly looks to her for leadership when they realize they have nowhere else to turn to. In season 8, she is Twilight's default choice for acting headmare of the School of Friendship when Twilight is forced to leave for any reason, [[spoiler:and is given the position permanently when Twilight ascends to being ruler of Equestria]].
* YouCouldHaveUsedYourPowersForGood: The reason why Twilight Sparkle and friends seek Starlight's redemption and friendship after her defeat. Starlight Glimmer is immensely powerful and magically talented for being a seemingly average-looking unicorn. They realize [[BewareTheSuperman how dangerous an enemy]] like her could become when left alone, and how valuable a friend and ally like her could potentially be. Starlight doesn't mind, as she truly desired friends to call her own.
* YouShallNotPass: In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", [[spoiler:Starlight, Celestia, Luna, and Discord put up enough of a fight for the Mane Six to escape from the villains, despite the latter three being drained of their magic]].
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