History Characters / FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer

* TokenEvilTeammate: During the events of "The Cutie Map", she is the only villainous resident in her isolated village (called "Our Town"), as all of the other ponies turn out to have been tricked by her thanks to her façade of generosity and are following her ''thinking'' she's truly their ally. In reality, the ones her under control are heroic and even help the Mane 6 in the climax, while Starlight herself is the one with villainous ideals. Though, she's a KnightTemplar instead of just doing it all without a reason, as she thinks she isn't evil and is the one who saved them by making them "equal".

* 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 [[ArcVillainess the main villainess]] 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.

* 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.

* PerpetualSmiler: From the moment she welcomes Twilight and her friends to the town to entering the cutie mark vault, she ''never, ever stops smiling,'' even when she's, say, singing about the disarray of a world of "special" people. She starts to let her other emotions through more and more when she thinks she has everything under control, and stops altogether after her VillainousBreakdown.

* OmnicidalManiac: Implied for her villainous self. When Twilight first shows her Equestria after it's been turned into a wasteland as a result of her altering the events of the past to prevent the Mane 6 from forming, [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans she cares very little about those consequences and argues that the end justifies the means]], albeit reluctantly.

* OmnicidalManiac: Implied for her villainous self. When Twilight first shows her Equestria after it's been turned into a wasteland as a result of her altering the events of the past to prevent the Mane 6 from forming, [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans she cares very little about those consequence and argues that the ends justify the means]], albeit reluctantly.

** 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.
* ForgotAboutHerPowers: During her fight with Chrysalis in the show's finale, she seems to only remember how to teleport and fire energy beams and forgets pretty much all of her other magic powers such as SuperSpeed, paralysing opponenents, self-levitation, transfiguration, cloud-walking, creating energy ropes, banishing opponents physical form from places, turning invisible, mind-control, trapping foes in crystals, creating various forms of AttackReflector shields, powerful telekinesis, creating massive bursts/explosions of magical energy, creating duplicates of herself as well as much more. If she has used these abilities then she most likely would have had a better chance against Chrysalis and hold her off for a lot longer. Also, the excuse that her magic's strength is dependent on how strong her emotions are doesn't work here as she are emotions are clearly at their peak when since she is fighting against her arch-enemy and is very determined to protect her friends and Equestria.

ForgotAboutHerPowers: During her fight with Chrysalis in the show's finale, she seems to only remember how to teleport and fire energy beams and forgets pretty much all of her other magic powers such as SuperSpeed, paralysing opponenents, self-levitation, transfiguration, cloud-walking, creating energy ropes, banishing opponents physical form from places, turning invisible, mind-control, trapping foes in crystals, creating various forms of AttackReflector shields, powerful telekinesis, creating massive bursts/explosions of magical energy, creating duplicates of herself as well as much more. If she has used these abilities then she most likely would have had a better chance against Chrysalis and hold her off for a lot longer. Also the excuse that she cn only use these powers

* MachiavelliWasWrong: Experiences this in her reformation where she stops acting like an obsessive tyrant. In "To Where and Back Again", she invokes this on [[ArcVillain Queen Chrysalis]], with Starlight advising her from personal experience that "leading by fear and intimidation and having everypony do what you say" is something she's ashamed of once thinking, and that it's much better for everyone to ''listen'' to other people rather than constantly deny their independence.

** 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 attack).

* 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 absent 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").

* 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.

* 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".

* SuperOCD: She shows some signs of OCD, probably to [[EvilCounterpart increase the similarities to Twilight]]. However, unlike Twilight's, hers isn't played for laughs, as she applies it to ''other ponies''.

** 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.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Downplayed but Starlight is noticeably a bit girlier (has a [[PinkMeansFeminine pink coat]], [[GracefulLadiesLikePurple purple mane]], wears said mane in a girly hair-style) than [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Sunset Shimmer]] (LovableAlphaBitch [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]], wears a leather jacket and pants and has wear her [[FieryRedhead red]] and yellow hair down). This is especially evident in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsMagicalMovieNight'' special where they finally get to interact with each other.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Downplayed but Starlight is noticeably a bit girlier (has a [[PinkMeansFeminine pink coat]], [[GracefulLadiesLikePurple purple mane]], wears said mane in a girly hair-style) than [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Sunset Shimmer]] (LovableAlphaBitch [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]], wears a leather jacket and pants and has wear her [[FieryRedhead red]] and yellow hair down). This is especially evident in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls/{{MagicalMovieNight}}'' special where they finally get to interact with each other.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Downplayed but Starlight is noticeably a bit girlier (has a [[PinkMeansFeminine pink coat]], [[GracefulLadiesLikePurple purple mane, wears said mane in a girly hair-style) than [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Sunset Shimmer]] (LovableAlphaBitch [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]], wears a leather jacket and pants and has wear her [[FieryRedhead red]] and yellow hair down). This is especially evident in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls/MagicalMovieNight'' special where they finally get to interact with each other.

* PinkMeansFeminine: She has a pink coat and after he HeelFaceTurn, she becomes a NiceGirl with a BeehiveHairdo.

* 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}}".

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: During "In Our Town", and when talking to the Mane Six afterwards, she repeatedly gets really close to them, even touching them a few times.

** 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.

* ShrinkingViolet: Starlight shows signs of this post-HeelFaceTurn, bashfully smiling and usually hanging to the side or in the back. Since Starlight is a student learning about friendship all over again, it comes with the territory. Her shattered self-esteem, [[IHatePastMe shame]] and [[BeAllMySinsRemembered insecurities]] regarding her past mistakes and contributes to this as well.

** Sunburst is one to her at first. When she hears Twilight's idea for her to reconnect with him, she completely zones out the rest of what Twilight was saying.

* 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.

* 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.

* VillainSong: "In Our Town", which she leads her village in singing, detailing her philosophy that only the equal can truly be friends.

* AmbiguousDisorder: As a villain, she shows some signs of OCD, being so obsessed with equality and order that she effectively becomes a cult leader. In her second appearance, she's shown to be extremely emotionally unstable and tends to switch from false sweetness to violent rage at the drop of a hat, possibly implying some form of bipolar disorder, but most likely she just has problems with controlling her emotions [[spoiler:stemming from childhood trauma. Speaking of which...]]
** In "The Cutie Map", there's indication she's paranoid, to the point of keeping a tight, constant watch on the entire town and making new recruits spend the first night in her house where she can keep her eyes on them. She has a ''severe'' distrust of those with different cutie marks (to the point her villagers' words imply she refused to get to know them at all while they still had theirs). When crossed, she suddenly goes from calm and collected to near-psychotic with rage, to the point of attempting to attack her own townspeople simply for turning her own rhetoric back at her.
** In "The Crystalling", she almost has a panic attack at the thought of [[spoiler:reuniting with Sunburst]]. Some fans have compared this to PTSD.
** And for the icing on the dysfunctional cake, Starlight also seems to have serious self-worth issues (mostly stemming from her time as a villain), which result in her experiencing some problems with anxiety. This is best shown in "To Where and Back Again", where her fear of being placed in a leadership role again caused her to have an uncontrollable magical outburst, and in "A Royal Problem" where her fear and anxiety over having potentially made a bad choice causes her to have some rather disturbing nightmares.
** On a less depressing note, her lack of social skills as well as her talent in magical studies may point towards her having some form of UsefulNotes/HighFunctioningAutism.
** In "The Parent Map", her father mentions that she used to have trouble sitting still and focusing, implying that she has ADHD.
** She also has shown signs of having [[UsefulNotes/PersonalityDisorders Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)]]. Some of the key symptoms of BPD include impulsivity, personality changes, paranoia, fear of abandonment, feeling worthless or inferior, obsession with one's favorite person, self-sabotage, severe emotional instability, outbursts, engaging in extreme behaviors just to feel adrenaline, and a wide range of struggles when it comes to relationships of any kind.

%%* BirdsOfAFeather: Unsurprisingly, she and Sunset hit it off almost right off the bat when they meet.

** 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.

* 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.]]

** She also tries to steal the cutie marks of the Mane Six as {{Revenge}} for disrupting her plans, seemingly believing that the Mane Six opposing her is some kind of intentional slight against her personally

*** 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.

* NiceHat: She wears a snazzy fuchsia knit cap decorated with white stars during her trip to the human world.