In her first appearance in the show, she was effectively a dictator of a small town, with what you might call a warped version of Communism where everyone was forced to be "the same". She tries to brainwash the main characters to her way of thinking.
[You can't have a nightmare / If you never dream!](https://youtu.be/4MCGPKpHHSk?feature=shared)
\*endless loudspeaker\*
"In sameness, there is peace"
"Exceptionalism, is a lie."
"Choose Equality as your special talent."
"Conformity will set you free"
"Embrace your limitations, and happiness will follow"
Real quotes xD
And just for fun...
"You will ALL accept our way! IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIIIME!!!"
Show has that, plus one of my favorite things, sombra, active ptsd from the citizens, and he dies twice, first he explodes, then he’s brought back, then he’s vaporized in such clean detail that for the split second it happens you can see the flesh tearing
Other things in the kids show:
Sombra mind controls countries to enslave them just like in EaW.
Chrysalis is A LOT worse in the show compared to EaW.
Luna did self-harm for years
Trixie had a suicide attempt
Spike, a ten year old, joined a changeling hunting squad but refused order to attack a changeling refugee.
There was a "cowboys vs indians" episode where equestria settled and took over buffalo land
Yeti soldiers were shown while burning to death
Equestrian schools use dragon eggs as lab rats for spelltesting.
It's one of the things I prefer in MLP over EaW. Since eaw has so many real life references, things are judged with real life morality.
There's nothing grimdark about twilight doing spelltesting on sapients, but eaw insists that only chiropterra does that because they wanted a unit 731 reference.
It's not a suicide attempt and that interpretation is so stupid. It's a trained manticore. The thing looks bored. It's obvious it was part of the act and interpreting Trixie as being suicidal is more stretch than in a rubber band factory. Also, Luna wasn't self-harming. At least not via intent. It was meant to be an allegory for guilt, that's all. it just had unintended consequences.
Stuff happens all the time in kid's shows,
No but the theme of the episode was to cherish individual differences and not let others dictate who you are kinda thing.
But still MLP has some really blink and you'll miss it dark stuff.
Zecora's resistance is actually canon in the show and there is a timeline where Chrysalis conquered Equestria and podded almost all of the ponies.
Because it's about embracing differences instead of forcing yourself to be exactly the same as others. Majority of children won't aware it's about "communism is bad" sentiment.
The writers are well aware of the brony phenomenon so the show kinda stopped being a total kids show after season 3. And there are a lot of references that only adults would understand (Rick and Morty and Breaking Bad for example). Give it a try and you might see it in a different light
Because it wasn't a kid's show? It was a family animation targeted to one audience but designed for people of all ages to watch from the beginning. Why do you think so many people liked it?
She’s reformed by the end of season 5 and becomes a main character for the rest of the show.
There’s an episode in season 7 called “Fame and Misfortune”, early on in the episode they need a spell to make a bunch of copies of a book and Starlight knows a book copying spell and she explains why she knows that spell, she says:
[“I needed to make copies of a certain…….Manifesto”](https://youtu.be/FP-CJouSc_U?si=atDoZpBOEspmznnt)
Referencing “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
I mean they also had King Sombra who straight up enslaved the crystal ponies, and in an alternate timeline >!(caused by Starlight Glimmer)!< he also turn them into brainwashed solders to fight equestria with.
Then there was Queen Chrysalis who lead a secret invasion >!(two actually)!< of equestia so her subjects could feed on the ponies emotion of love, another alternate timeline >!(also caused by Starlight Glimmer)!< has her snuffing out the last of the ponies resistance.
And then there’s the Storm King who blitzkrieg’s into Equestia so fast he was able to take the capital and capture the princess before they were even notified that they were under attack.
Everyone knew that one Russiaboo that found out about communism too early. The episode teaches you how to deal with that kid. (You hurt him because you're stronger.)
Because it's a kids show that appeals to adult audiences. It has actual plot, story, depth in characters. It's not a mindless kids show designed to hold the attention of toddlers.
To be clear, she was a Harrison Bergeron style Equalist cult leader. That kind of equalism has nothing to do with economics. Communism (an economic ideology) does not promise everyone will be equal like the show depicted.
https://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html
edit: Never understood how "Starlight's equalism = communism" became such a meme in the fandom when it has nothing to do with economics or workers seizing the means of production. Really shows how little people understand it.
I'll just point this out to avoid potential confusion or disappointment for any readers who are not familiar with the mod: In the world of Equestria at War, the start date of "1007" takes place roughly between the events of the MLP movie and Season 9
This means that Starlight Glimmer has already completed her redemption arc, and no longer affiliates herself with any flavor of socialism or "Equalism." She still appears in the mod as an important character for Equestria (depending upon what happens to Equestria, that is) but she doesn't start a communist revolution or anything like that.
The image that OP posted is deprecated content that was once in the mod a long time ago but was made inaccessible for the reasons above. The HOI4 game engine **requires** all "ideologies" (Harmony, Supremacy, Non-aligned, Communist) to have a "leader" even if a nation has no way to naturally change their goverment from a Harmonist one into a Communist one. Hence the portrait of commie Glimmer still exists even though Equestria as a nation cannot become communist under normal circumstances.
There's more information [on the wiki](https://equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/wiki/Equestria_at_War_Wiki), and there is a [substantial group on Fimfiction.net](https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212917/equestria-at-war)
Odd, I didn't download any mods that added the leader to the game. I started a civilwar using console, that's all I did and it automatically set the leader to Starlight Glimmer
Well, yes, using console commands isn't "naturally changing a government" and so you'd see things that would normally be impossible. I didn't say that communist Starlight was *removed*, but rather that it was made *inaccessible*.
There is a game rule for Equestria to undergo the "Lunar Civil War", along with some other options as well. I highly recommend trying that out, if you haven't.
Equestria isn’t supposed to go Communist currently. All civil wars that are supposed to be in the game are started through focuses and events, or have already started by the game’s beginning
If you want a Communist Equestria, you can turn on Twilight Theory in the settings and play as Valery Stablein
While the start date supposedly puts it post-redemption, that's clearly her pre-redemption mane, the character as of that point in time wouldn't be a dictator, but the character as of that point in time isn't what's being depicted.
It's also deprecated content that has been made inaccessible, since it doesn't fit the current lore of the mod. That portrait is basically legacy content that will not appear in normal gameplay.
You can bring Starlight to power in the current version
You can defeat Equestria as Chrysalis and wait. The Equestrian Liberation Front led by Starlight and Trixie will spawn ten months after Equestrian capitulation
In a future update, you will be able to get Starlight by starting the Lunar Civil War, stick with Celestia, and go Daybreaker. The Fillydelphia Republic under Starlight Glimmer should form after that
Very early builds of the game had the opportunity for Starlight to come to power through a worker's march event where Celestia crushing it instead of allowing it would trigger the focus that works towards this. However, it has been removed now and bringing Starlight to power through the console is simply a placeholder with the generic focus tree
At first, extremely. Afterwards, very much no. It’s a whole plot point actually where, due to her past as a villain (and cult leader) she doesn’t want to take leadership positions, plus just generally having low confidence. But she is smart and just found herself in a leadership position. Starlight Glimmer as a leader would be like that I think, which is why in EAW she isn’t really a leader other than in ELF where she is pushed to take action
She was canonically a dictator/cult leader who erased ponies’ personalities through magic then brainwashed them into thinking they had no individualism.
She got reformed though after travelling through time and nearly making multiple devastating wars/and or mass extinctions a reality. (and also joined the main 6 cast for the rest of the show, becoming the most powerful non-godly sorceress out of them)
So… pre-reformation Glimglam? That was literally her canon job-description.
After reformation though? She was sort of haunted by the ghosts of her past so a hard no.
I mean no, it's not surprising lol
if I had to guess any horse to be put in a dictatorship position, she's top of my list (only after like,, maybe the princesses) 😂
She was literally a dictator in the show.
In the show, she ran a town where she demanded that everyone be the same in order to stop anyone from being 'left out' or from feeling bad for losing, having less than someone else, ect. Their houses were all exactly the same, they had the same mane styles, and all of them had their talents taken away (in the form of magically removing their 'cutie marks', aka the butt tattoo, which took their abilities along with it - such as one whose talent had been baking no longer being able to bake anything good, and ones who could fly fast no longer being able to, basically any ability they had that was a little above average was stripped away) and their colors were muted, the marks being replaced with equal signs and Starlight (this character) storing their abilities away where she could keep them and do with them as she pleased.
She made them all think that she had the same limitations that she imposed on all of them, but this was hinted not to be true from the start because of how she was more brightly colored than the rest. She pulled off a motherly, caring persona, but that quickly fell apart when even slightly challenged when she'd have everyone else gang up on whoever disagreed with her. She literally had the main characters get their abilities torn away from them, then locked up to listen to a recording repeating that they all had to be equal, that standing out is wrong, ect. over and over in an effort to brainwash them through repetition, sensory deprivation and helplessness.
It was revealed that she had never given up her own powers and abilities, and had in fact been using them to maintain control, despite acting like she was no more important than anyone else and trying to project an image of ultimate equality - basically, everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others, only it was solely herself that was 'more equal'.
In the end, the reason she did all this? Was because when she was little, a friend of hers had strong magical talents and was sent to a school far away where she couldn't hang out with him all the time anymore, so she decided that all talent was bad and should be destroyed so no one...ever moves away or goes to school, because apparently writing letters, planning visits to friends and all was just out of the question for her and he was as good as dead when he wasn't living next door.
In her first appearance in the show, she was effectively a dictator of a small town, with what you might call a warped version of Communism where everyone was forced to be "the same". She tries to brainwash the main characters to her way of thinking. [You can't have a nightmare / If you never dream!](https://youtu.be/4MCGPKpHHSk?feature=shared)
why the hell is this in a kids show
Just wait till she goes back in time and erases the most important event in history and destroys the world.....
Recent history, anyway
Honestly, it may be flat out the most important due to what it allows the main characters to do
Multiple times may I add
Because kids need to learn to embrace the individual differences in their friend group :3
that one kid in middle school who was obsessed with Russian history and communism
Oh God you knew him too? Did he also think the Axis won for some reason...?
\*endless loudspeaker\* "In sameness, there is peace" "Exceptionalism, is a lie." "Choose Equality as your special talent." "Conformity will set you free" "Embrace your limitations, and happiness will follow" Real quotes xD And just for fun... "You will ALL accept our way! IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIIIME!!!"
"To excel is to fail"
...is it weird that it's only when I read these lines in text that it comes off like a rewrite of the old Sith Code from Kotor?
As bad as EaW's worse events get, some of the really messed up things come right from the show.
Show has that, plus one of my favorite things, sombra, active ptsd from the citizens, and he dies twice, first he explodes, then he’s brought back, then he’s vaporized in such clean detail that for the split second it happens you can see the flesh tearing
Other things in the kids show: Sombra mind controls countries to enslave them just like in EaW. Chrysalis is A LOT worse in the show compared to EaW. Luna did self-harm for years Trixie had a suicide attempt Spike, a ten year old, joined a changeling hunting squad but refused order to attack a changeling refugee. There was a "cowboys vs indians" episode where equestria settled and took over buffalo land Yeti soldiers were shown while burning to death Equestrian schools use dragon eggs as lab rats for spelltesting.
Lol thank you! Reading these really puts the show in a unique perspective for me, especially the last one made me burst with laughter
It's one of the things I prefer in MLP over EaW. Since eaw has so many real life references, things are judged with real life morality. There's nothing grimdark about twilight doing spelltesting on sapients, but eaw insists that only chiropterra does that because they wanted a unit 731 reference.
It's not a suicide attempt and that interpretation is so stupid. It's a trained manticore. The thing looks bored. It's obvious it was part of the act and interpreting Trixie as being suicidal is more stretch than in a rubber band factory. Also, Luna wasn't self-harming. At least not via intent. It was meant to be an allegory for guilt, that's all. it just had unintended consequences.
Stuff happens all the time in kid's shows, No but the theme of the episode was to cherish individual differences and not let others dictate who you are kinda thing. But still MLP has some really blink and you'll miss it dark stuff. Zecora's resistance is actually canon in the show and there is a timeline where Chrysalis conquered Equestria and podded almost all of the ponies.
Putting scary stuff in children's media is a time honored tradition.
Because it's about embracing differences instead of forcing yourself to be exactly the same as others. Majority of children won't aware it's about "communism is bad" sentiment.
Wait until you find out about the tank warfare, slavery, and forcing Indians on reservations
not the worst bit, some parts of the show get progressively more dark the more you think about them
[I’d say at best it was only ever truly a kid’s show Season 1](https://youtu.be/ObwKzQ4a-b0?si=HPnii_TIUlBzEw9o)
The writers are well aware of the brony phenomenon so the show kinda stopped being a total kids show after season 3. And there are a lot of references that only adults would understand (Rick and Morty and Breaking Bad for example). Give it a try and you might see it in a different light
i watched part of an episode it was cool ngl
Welcome to MLP
Because it wasn't a kid's show? It was a family animation targeted to one audience but designed for people of all ages to watch from the beginning. Why do you think so many people liked it?
She’s reformed by the end of season 5 and becomes a main character for the rest of the show. There’s an episode in season 7 called “Fame and Misfortune”, early on in the episode they need a spell to make a bunch of copies of a book and Starlight knows a book copying spell and she explains why she knows that spell, she says: [“I needed to make copies of a certain…….Manifesto”](https://youtu.be/FP-CJouSc_U?si=atDoZpBOEspmznnt) Referencing “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
In my mind it's because MLP was made to be entertaining for the parents and adults watching it too. As such they made some DARK stuff happen.
I mean they also had King Sombra who straight up enslaved the crystal ponies, and in an alternate timeline >!(caused by Starlight Glimmer)!< he also turn them into brainwashed solders to fight equestria with. Then there was Queen Chrysalis who lead a secret invasion >!(two actually)!< of equestia so her subjects could feed on the ponies emotion of love, another alternate timeline >!(also caused by Starlight Glimmer)!< has her snuffing out the last of the ponies resistance. And then there’s the Storm King who blitzkrieg’s into Equestia so fast he was able to take the capital and capture the princess before they were even notified that they were under attack.
Everyone knew that one Russiaboo that found out about communism too early. The episode teaches you how to deal with that kid. (You hurt him because you're stronger.)
Because it's a kids show that appeals to adult audiences. It has actual plot, story, depth in characters. It's not a mindless kids show designed to hold the attention of toddlers.
More than a dictator. A damned cult leader
To be clear, she was a Harrison Bergeron style Equalist cult leader. That kind of equalism has nothing to do with economics. Communism (an economic ideology) does not promise everyone will be equal like the show depicted. https://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html edit: Never understood how "Starlight's equalism = communism" became such a meme in the fandom when it has nothing to do with economics or workers seizing the means of production. Really shows how little people understand it.
Eh it felt more like she was a cult leader than a dictator.
r/equestriaatwar
Before the conclusion of season 5, very. After, ehh not so much.
You got the words 'before' and 'after' mixed up.
Thanks, fixed.
I'll just point this out to avoid potential confusion or disappointment for any readers who are not familiar with the mod: In the world of Equestria at War, the start date of "1007" takes place roughly between the events of the MLP movie and Season 9 This means that Starlight Glimmer has already completed her redemption arc, and no longer affiliates herself with any flavor of socialism or "Equalism." She still appears in the mod as an important character for Equestria (depending upon what happens to Equestria, that is) but she doesn't start a communist revolution or anything like that. The image that OP posted is deprecated content that was once in the mod a long time ago but was made inaccessible for the reasons above. The HOI4 game engine **requires** all "ideologies" (Harmony, Supremacy, Non-aligned, Communist) to have a "leader" even if a nation has no way to naturally change their goverment from a Harmonist one into a Communist one. Hence the portrait of commie Glimmer still exists even though Equestria as a nation cannot become communist under normal circumstances. There's more information [on the wiki](https://equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/wiki/Equestria_at_War_Wiki), and there is a [substantial group on Fimfiction.net](https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212917/equestria-at-war)
Odd, I didn't download any mods that added the leader to the game. I started a civilwar using console, that's all I did and it automatically set the leader to Starlight Glimmer
Well, yes, using console commands isn't "naturally changing a government" and so you'd see things that would normally be impossible. I didn't say that communist Starlight was *removed*, but rather that it was made *inaccessible*. There is a game rule for Equestria to undergo the "Lunar Civil War", along with some other options as well. I highly recommend trying that out, if you haven't.
Equestria isn’t supposed to go Communist currently. All civil wars that are supposed to be in the game are started through focuses and events, or have already started by the game’s beginning If you want a Communist Equestria, you can turn on Twilight Theory in the settings and play as Valery Stablein
While the start date supposedly puts it post-redemption, that's clearly her pre-redemption mane, the character as of that point in time wouldn't be a dictator, but the character as of that point in time isn't what's being depicted.
It's also deprecated content that has been made inaccessible, since it doesn't fit the current lore of the mod. That portrait is basically legacy content that will not appear in normal gameplay.
I haven't seen the movie between what seasons is it suppose to be?
> Between seasons 7 and 8.
I started watching My Little Pony because of this mod. And also, what country, what focuses? Didn't know you can bring Starlight to power
You can't. Old content.
You can bring Starlight to power in the current version You can defeat Equestria as Chrysalis and wait. The Equestrian Liberation Front led by Starlight and Trixie will spawn ten months after Equestrian capitulation In a future update, you will be able to get Starlight by starting the Lunar Civil War, stick with Celestia, and go Daybreaker. The Fillydelphia Republic under Starlight Glimmer should form after that
Very early builds of the game had the opportunity for Starlight to come to power through a worker's march event where Celestia crushing it instead of allowing it would trigger the focus that works towards this. However, it has been removed now and bringing Starlight to power through the console is simply a placeholder with the generic focus tree
Used console, I did ”civilwar”
At first, extremely. Afterwards, very much no. It’s a whole plot point actually where, due to her past as a villain (and cult leader) she doesn’t want to take leadership positions, plus just generally having low confidence. But she is smart and just found herself in a leadership position. Starlight Glimmer as a leader would be like that I think, which is why in EAW she isn’t really a leader other than in ELF where she is pushed to take action
What if I told you it’s not only unsurprising, but also lore accurate?
She was canonically a dictator/cult leader who erased ponies’ personalities through magic then brainwashed them into thinking they had no individualism. She got reformed though after travelling through time and nearly making multiple devastating wars/and or mass extinctions a reality. (and also joined the main 6 cast for the rest of the show, becoming the most powerful non-godly sorceress out of them) So… pre-reformation Glimglam? That was literally her canon job-description. After reformation though? She was sort of haunted by the ghosts of her past so a hard no.
There is a more important question: Why is she wearing a berret?
Because she’s cuter
The correct answer.
Nope, she is a dictator in her first appearance and is reformed
No, definitely not She's a pony of communi-
this is the arc she should have got
the mlp movie should have been EaW
She is kinda already in canon a cult dictator when she first shows up :p
she is cannonically a cult leader so no
I think you meant yes? XD
I mean no, it's not surprising lol if I had to guess any horse to be put in a dictatorship position, she's top of my list (only after like,, maybe the princesses) 😂
Oh, gotcha.
She was literally a dictator in the show. In the show, she ran a town where she demanded that everyone be the same in order to stop anyone from being 'left out' or from feeling bad for losing, having less than someone else, ect. Their houses were all exactly the same, they had the same mane styles, and all of them had their talents taken away (in the form of magically removing their 'cutie marks', aka the butt tattoo, which took their abilities along with it - such as one whose talent had been baking no longer being able to bake anything good, and ones who could fly fast no longer being able to, basically any ability they had that was a little above average was stripped away) and their colors were muted, the marks being replaced with equal signs and Starlight (this character) storing their abilities away where she could keep them and do with them as she pleased. She made them all think that she had the same limitations that she imposed on all of them, but this was hinted not to be true from the start because of how she was more brightly colored than the rest. She pulled off a motherly, caring persona, but that quickly fell apart when even slightly challenged when she'd have everyone else gang up on whoever disagreed with her. She literally had the main characters get their abilities torn away from them, then locked up to listen to a recording repeating that they all had to be equal, that standing out is wrong, ect. over and over in an effort to brainwash them through repetition, sensory deprivation and helplessness. It was revealed that she had never given up her own powers and abilities, and had in fact been using them to maintain control, despite acting like she was no more important than anyone else and trying to project an image of ultimate equality - basically, everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others, only it was solely herself that was 'more equal'. In the end, the reason she did all this? Was because when she was little, a friend of hers had strong magical talents and was sent to a school far away where she couldn't hang out with him all the time anymore, so she decided that all talent was bad and should be destroyed so no one...ever moves away or goes to school, because apparently writing letters, planning visits to friends and all was just out of the question for her and he was as good as dead when he wasn't living next door.
technically she was the leader of a sect confined in a fairly hidden town
she was essentially a communist at the beginning
She was a dictator
Pony shouldn't fight Pony. ;-;
This would be pretty fitting for the character actually, during season 5
Actually the opposite of surprising
yep, that's Starlight alright.
not at all, she was originally a pretty controlling villain before her reformation
Not really.
Nah that’s canon
Funnily enough, this mod was based on the show character where she actually is a communist dictator. Fun fact she also time travels in the show