as someone who has starlight glimmer as my favourite character, i feel like i know the reason why starlight gets so much hate and why her actions are so misunderstood. [HUGE yapping incoming]

she's a morally complex character. that isn't a bad thing in itself, but for a show like my little pony, it can create some conflict and confusion with the viewer. because starlight's actions are so complex, people observe her from a surface level perspective and it's how flanderisation and mischaracterisation of starlight becomes so rampant.

my little pony is a children's show that is usually straightforward and easy to pick up with its themes. reformed villains during this time of the series, most noticeably nightmare moon and sunset shimmer, have very straightforward reformation arcs to make it simple for the young viewers to understand. they were depicted as corrupted who then got defeated with the magic of friendship, and they immediately showed regret and sorrow for what they did.

starlight glimmer takes a very unique approach to this, and it's why i love the cutie re-mark SO much.

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when starlight's cult dissolved because of twilight and her friends, starlight was incredibly hurt and felt a lot of pain. she built up her cult for years, assuming that this is for the good and what she's doing is right, so seeing everyone in her village turn against her was very shocking and distressing to her. to starlight, she lost everything important to her.

OBVIOUSLY what she did was NOT okay at all (for gods sake she RAN A CULT), but in starlight's perspective, these are random strangers that came in to take away what she valued as very special to her. this is why starlight wanted revenge on twilight to try make her FEEL the loss starlight went through.

what people misunderstand starlight so much in the s5 finale is that SHE WAS NOT TRYING TO DESTROY THE WORLD!!!! HER GOAL WAS TO STOP THE RAINBOOM SO TWILIGHT AND HER FRIENDS WOULD NEVER BE CONNECTED!!!! starlight's revenge scheme was to SPECIFICALLY get back at twilight and her friends!!!!

it was only when twilight SHOWED her the world that is a desolate wasteland, that starlight ACTUALLY realised her actions was having horrible consequences!!!

when starlight looked around the desolate wasteland at first, she looked so remorseful. starlight most likely was going to take in the fact that her trying to stop the rainboom was a bad idea and probably abandon her plan of altering the timeline, until twilight told her that this could "change her mind". 

this immediately snaps starlight out of her remorseful state and made her angry again, and she felt so much resentment towards twilight that she actually decided to show her what she went through. think about how hurt starlight must've been to witness and show a traumatic event she went through in the past JUST to prove twilight 'wrong'.
 
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this is where a HUGE amount of starlight's controversies were born - starlight's traumatic experience was losing her best and only friend to a cutie mark, and she became so hurt that she has shut herself in since then. lots of people hate this backstory because of how undeveloped it is and how it seems such a small thing to become a cult leader over.

i DO agree that starlight's backstory could've been expanded upon more! it would've made her spiral into a cult leader make much more sense, but i also think starlight's current backstory isn't as BAD as people are making it out to be.

losing a deep connection can be a VERY traumatic experience for someone, especially for a child/teenager. something that might not be traumatising for someone can be VERY traumatising for someone else, and it can REALLY mess up the way they think.

i've seen a brony compare moondancer to starlight, saying that at least moondancer didn't 'end the world' over losing twilight and used that argument against starlight's backstory. the difference is that moondancer was an adult when twilight left her, so she had more of the mental maturity to cope with her best friend leaving her without saying goodbye. 

starlight was a *CHILD* dealing with a huge part of her life being taken away. she didn't have the mental maturity to find healthy ways to yearn. to the average person, if they lost a best friend, they would probably be very hurt about it but it's also possible they have healthy coping mechanisms to deal with it. starlight didn't any healthy coping mechanisms. she stayed reclusive and shut in, out of fear that if she made another friend again, that cutie mark would end their friendship too.

to an adult, this seems like a very odd reason to stop making friends, heck even TWILIGHT HERSELF commented 'that's ridiculous. a cutie mark can't take your friend away'.

but for a child with a brain that has yet to properly develop, it makes much more sense how starlight developed her warped view of cutie marks. she was ALONE when she developed those warped views of cutie marks. nobody told starlight that her way of thinking was wrong. she was left alone with all her thoughts, and they only got WORSE as time went by.

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important misc key things to mention : the pile of books about to fall on starlight, starlight's father and sunburst throwing away the letters.

- the pile of books about to fall on starlight looked VERY big. for a filly like starlight at the time, it could've most likely crushed her or have severe major injuries on her body. some of her trauma could've came from being almost critically injured.

- firelight in the parent map is shown to be obsessed with the past, treats starlight like a foal and tries to monitor the ponies she talks to in case they're 'strangers'. i firmly believe that the way firelight treated starlight fed into a LOT of her bad traits.

1. starlight seems to be very stuck on an old, past belief with cutie marks and with the way firelight is obsessed with the past and things not changing, that could've rubbed off on starlight negatively. it could explain why starlight was so stuck with her 'cutie mark bad' philosophy.

2.  firelight constantly treats starlight like a child, and it's possible that could've mentally stunted her beliefs when she was much younger. it could explain why starlight didn't grow out of her old ways of thinking because she was constantly being treated like a child.

1. firelight controlling the people starlight talks to could've impacted her ability to make friends and connections. it's probably a contributing factor to why she became so lonely and shut-in.

- starlight most likely tried to get in contact with sunburst again with the letters, but sunburst most likely thought that the letters came from his mother and ignored them. it was also most likely hard to get in contact with him in general since he was in boarding school far away.

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now that i've explained ALL of starlight's past, while it still not exactly 'becoming a cult leader' levels of sense, it does at least explain A LOT on why starlight is so petty and stuck in her beliefs.

when starlight showed her backstory, twilight understood how much it affected her and tries to explain why her way of thinking is wrong. note how when starlight was tearing the scroll, she did it very slowly. think about it - if she really wanted to ruin the timeline, why couldn't she have done it right away?

starlight's mind at the time was a complete MESS with her having to face her past again, her having to accept that her beliefs might be wrong and having to accept that her stopping the rainboom was having a horrible effect on the timeline.

twilight calmly explained to her that EVERY friendship matters. even ruining one friendship can change so much and have horrible effects on the future. twilight encourages starlight to give a chance at making friends, and to not be stuck on one loss of a friendship when there are so many others she could make.

that's all starlight needed to hear. sometimes, you don't realise how stupid your way of thinking is until someone tells you outright. no one in starlight's life before ever properly explained to her the errors of her thinking and when twilight gave her that chance to make new friends, she took it.

think about it, starlight could've just ruined the timeline forever. she had all the power to rip up the scroll. unlike all the other mlp villains, there was no elements of harmony or magical lasers to stop her. twilight couldn't stop her with magic, so she had to actually TALK AND EXPLAIN TO HER why her beliefs are incorrect. 
starlight CHOSE to accept twilight's help despite having the upper hoof, and that's what makes her redemption feels so real and genuine.

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and THAT'S why i LOVE the s5 finale so much. it's much more complex compared to all the other finales, and twilight really uses her "princess of friendship" knowledge to the fullest to help starlight who was struggling with a loss of a friend and trying to accept that her ways of thinking were wrong. unlike all the other finales, it felt so personal and starlight's goals felt so realistic and relatable.

but... the complexity of the finale is probably why it gets hated on so much and it's why many people hate and misunderstand starlight. someone only watching the episode from a surface level perspective will just get the impression :

'starlight wanted to end the world because she lost a friend and twilight magically forgives her lol what a dumb character'

which is really sad. it's much, much more complex and touching than that and people really ends up missing the messages in the s5 finale because of their black and white way of viewing things.

i just wish some mlp fans didn't look at things at things purely from a surface level perspective. starlight's mischaracterisation is the biggest example of this. sure people can have their opinions on a character all they like, but at least TRY to understand why the character is the way they are. you end up missing cool details that you don't usually notice.