No, my comment was about the writing and not the looks; and in hindsight I was right, since the movie ended up appealing to no-one. Normies couldn’t shake the feeling that “ok, if I watched the show I guess this would make sense” and bronies didn’t like how the movie essentially felt like a continuation of the end of Season 4 rather than a continuation of Season 7.

Also, if I was being very blunt, I’d say it’s yet another case of Mass-Effect-2-itis, where it’s more-or-less a side-story that introduces unwanted elements into the setting. Me comparing it to His Erection was me being nice.

“Oh my God, you killed STARLIGHT!”  
“You BASTARDS!!”

@Background Pony #15D2  
Truth

Best scene in the movie!

STARLIGHT!!!!!!  

@Background Pony #94BE  
And no guts.

This is fake, there’s no blood

…And nothing of value was lost

STARLIGHT…  

hahaha

And then they realize it’s an inflatable doll of Starlight and the real one was handling the fireworks all along with Trixie.

Lmfao

@Philweasel  
… She barely did anything of importance there, and what she DID do was cliche as hell… And we only saw the village’s ideology, not how it was actually run. Say what you want about Villain Starlight, but at the very least she was confident and charismatic enough to sway a few ponies over to her side for a while.

@Philweasel  
Obviously she’s always struggled with interacting with other ponies; if those skills came naturally to her, there would have been no need to create Our Town in first place. That said, the ponies of Our Town still had more agency than the remane 5 in ELTSD, if only slightly so. Under the hypnosis spell, the remane 5 had to be manually ordered around by Starlight; if she didn’t provide them with any intructions, they would just stand still in one spot. The Our Town ponies, on the other hand, were so thoroughly brainwashed and manipulated by her that they were willing abide by Starlight’s philosophy under their own volition. She accomplished that in part because of the exuberance she showed in expressing and implementing her ideology; to put it in other words, it’s unlikely she could have gained such a loyal following if she was always revealing her insecurities.
 
Agreed. Her performance in TWABA is probably her best display of leadership thus far. I look forward to seeing just how much she’ll grow as a character.

@cloudkicker108  
People talk about Starlight’s leadership in her first episode, but I think it’s severely overrated. Her followers have barely got more agency than the Mane 5 in ELTSD, really it’s further proof that Starlight can’t deal with real ponies. I’m certain that as much as cutie marks, it was about making sure no pony else had the willpower to disagree with her.
 
With this said her performance in TWABA is a vast improvement, confidence or not.

@Philweasel  
I agree. It’s interesting how prior to her reformation, Starlight was leading others with as much confidence and charisma as Twilight, but after her entire worldview was shattered and she found herself all the way back at the bottom of the ladder, all of that understandably dissipated away. As you mentioned, this lack of self-confidence becomes quite visible in her dialogue and actions, especially when it comes to implementing plans. That said, she does seem to be making progress. It’s a gradual climb, but hopefully one day she’ll regain the charisma she once had.
 
@Philweasel  
I also agree. I think her leadership skills are tied in with her element and thus also run on the same principle. The mane 6 may not perfectly epitomize their elements at all times (in fact, I can think of more than a few instances where they’ve acted in manners that are pretty much the exact opposite of what they represent), but they will pull through and full embody the qualities of friendship bestowed upon them when it really counts.

@Background Pony #F7FE  
The leader part was more directed toward Twilight then starlight, who’s issues are more into flawed in interaction immunity until after she does something horrible, since as@Philweasel pointed out, she was as best a leader as a kickboxer under 2 years old.
 
As for twilight… being praised ‘twilight could do no wrong’ at the end of crystal empire, discord motivating her back in the leader position for all the wrong reasons in princess twilight sparkle, buckling under celestia’s suggestion to keep the other mane 5 in the dark in tireks episode, only sunset noticing the obvious signs of her buckling under the pressure in rainbow rocks..
 
The mane 6 normally know she doesn’t have messiah like leadership, organized but still farthest from the truth, but celestia thinks otherwise.
 
One of twilghts best independent plans was having starlight hold the stupid stick and let fluttershy interact with her friends even when it was obviously a trap.
 
But hey, that’s just how I see it. We can agree to disagree.

@Background Pony #F7FE  
Now only Spike reminds her past. Besides Starlight, Sci-Twi and Sunset talked to Juniper about their “dark past”

@Philweasel  
pretty much, yeah. Starlight can be a decent leader but traumatic experiences and her past oftenly holding her back. It’s reasonable flaws that make her relatable.

I think Twilight’s a pretty good leader, despite her social difficulties. They’re really pretty different skill sets, as Lyndon Johnson will tell you. Twilight’s incredible earnestness and faith in friendship and magic make her seem slightly odd in person, but messiah-like when put in charge. Ponies like Rainbow Dash might make fun of her, but they know she’s good for it when the chips are down.

@Philweasel  
Starlight is a great leader. But in TWABW, take away her magic, like Discord and a lesser way, Trixie. I felt she lost her appeal. I like Starlight with her great magic skills. But its better using only to defeat important enemies or practice with Twilight.

@Background Pony #F7FE  
TWABW can be excused, because she really did have the best leadership abilities within the group (which is like being the best kickboxer under two years old).
 
Starlight has… decent planning and organizational skills, and would make a reasonably effective middle manager. Pretty much every plan she’s ever made has fallen apart in practice however, because she really doesn’t have the charisma to make ponies do what she wants. In “A Royal Problem” for instance she was completely ineffective in stopping the argument between Luna and Celestia, and had a nervous breakdown about five seconds into trying to organize the Mane 5 in “Every Little Thing She Does”. And Trixie repeatedly walks all over her.

@CronoM  
>the show and their characters and environment barely ackoledge it  
false. you just conveniently(or selectively) ignored most of Starlight and other characters interactions.  
>They are often treated as charismatic leaders even when acting the exact opposite  
often? when was that happend with Starlight? (excluding TWABW, because she actually leaded the group there) kindly point it out please.