They did an awful job and it’s embarrassing.

I need to rewatch the episode but this is more or less what I got out of it. So maybe there wasn’t much lost in translation?

Yeah, I can understand how that message got lost in the writing stages. In the end, the episode very much comes off as Discord generally being a terrible person and Starlight being perfectly reasonable in what she’s doing throughout. It more or less felt as if the whole lesson of “communication” was kind of jammed-into the ending of it like a round block in a square peg.

@Wiimeiser  
Yeah, I doubt there was anyone in the audience wondering whether Starlight is too prideful or in the wrong. Most of the episode focused on Discord being an unreasonable dick while Starlight is just trying to get by. It probably woudn’t even be that bad if the episode aired after S3 where Discord was just a dick and didn’t care much about Mane6 and Fluttershy.

i can see that as a legitimate explanation. an idea that was good but slowly lost clarity due to needing to function in the settings it is being presented in.
 
it would be great if the writers could explain their original story ideas for each episode. like “in this episode we wanted to expand on X but due to time constraints we had to cut the scene” would be very helpful for the analytical side of the fandom.
 
maybe when the series ends they can expand on that a bit. id love a book series that went in-depth about each episode and what the writers wanted them to be.
 
story ideas that were cut, episodes that were changed, or even episodes and arcs that were pitched but rejected! id buy the heck out of that.

I feel like the episode as badly conveyed its message as Feeling Pinkie Keen

So the original intention got lost in the writing shuffle, then…