I’m not gonna lie, when I watched this episode last year, I immediately thought of Every little thing she does.
 
Not a good feeling.
 
@Dulset  
Indeed. Before Cutie remark, Starlight was just manipulating other ponies and swapping cutie marks for her own sake. After the episode, she still manipulates other ponies and swapping cutie marks for her own sake.
 
It’s pretty clear in her attitude that she hasn’t learned anything.

@Dulset  
A reformed sociopathic SJW to be exact.

@Ereiam  
A trying sociopath.

@Dulset  
A recovering sociopath.

@Dulset  
Was a sociopath.

She’s just a sociopath, that’s all.

@Ereiam  
lol No worries. I was just givin’ ya a hard time.

@MegaAnimationFan  
I do and I agree. Sorry about the grammatical national-socialism.

@Ereiam  
Whatever. XD You get my point

@MegaAnimationFan  
*dimension

@Amethyst_Crystal  
Considering she was (and sort of still is) learning and was super new to the whole friendship thing, I’d give her a pass. I mean by the time Every Little Thing She Does released, it’s been like, what, six months or so since she reformed? It’s like an alcoholic getting drunken off of his/her ass half a year after he/she decided to try and get better. Especially after a small cup here and there. It’s a slow process that takes time an patience.
 
I mean, I forgave and Gave Discord a pass after he endangered everyone in the Gala and almost banished Treehugger to another detention because he was simply jealous for the same reason. He’s still learning.

@Ereiam  
I definitely like how Every Little Thing She Does is kinda like Lesson Zero 2.0
 
@MegaAnimationFan  
You make some interesting points.  
There’s also the fact that Starlight put together the spell combo when she was panicking and under stress,  
‘not thinking it through’.  
Still, she was attempting to do some kind of ‘mental persuasion’, she was revisiting her old habits of manipulating others.  
I agree she didn’t mean any malice or harm, but she still went through with it, and it was mental slavery.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
Who knows how long that episode and this one really was. Could’ve been almost a year. But like you said,up for debate.
 
And Starlight clearly didn’t know what she was doing nor did she think any of that through. I think the two moments that played back to back prove that. One, the fact that she said to Twilight that she’s never casted that spell (or more appropriately combined the 3 or 4 spells) before and wasn’t thinking it through. And two, the exchange that followed almost immediately after that:
 
“What made you think casting a spell on your friends to do your bidding was even remotely a good idea?”  
“Well, when you put it that way……it sounds really bad”
 
Just by those two facts alone it’s clear that mind controlling them never even crossed her mind at all. And I to this day can’t for the life of me figure out how or why people somehow miss that or just plain disregard those pretty important details that clearly show that there was no maliciousness in her actions or attempts.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
It was only in hindsight, when Twilight called her out on it after cancelling the spell, that she finally realized how bad that was (in this regard, it mirrored Twilight’s own misuse of the “want it, need it” spell that got her chewed out by Celestia in “Lesson Zero”).

@MegaAnimationFan  
Starlight’s fiducia compellia spell was cast 9 episodes before this scene (or 8 ‘stories’ earlier if we count the s6 finale as one),  
so whether that’s recent enough to count as ‘lately’ is up for debate.
 
I thought Starlight for sure mind controlled the mane five on purpose though?  
Maybe she didn’t mean to take it to the extreme making them obedient servants, but…

To be fair, I don’t think that incident was technically recent. And it wasn’t deliberate either.

Starlight better keep that information secret…or else Maud might smash her.

Oh snap!