>>41505702I don't think it's that unbelievable to be honest. She herself said that she spent years studying that spell she used against Twilight, and probably did the same with the Cutie Mark thing (that was her whole motivation, it makes sense she basically obsessed over it, she might as well have invented the spell). The time spell I agree it's maybe too much but again, we know that she's basically a prodigy and spent all of season 5 stalking Twilight and planning how to defeat her, if she found about the spell then it's not crazy to think she obsessed over how to complete it. But other than that, the reason I don't think she's a Mary Sue is because the show Isn't about who's the most powerful wizard in Equestria, it's about friendship problems and shit, and in that regards Starlight struggles as much as any of the other main characters. In fact, a lot of the time it's precisely her powers that cause problems for herself, unlike Twilight that tends to solve most of her problems using magic.
>>41505715 But that's why she's studying under Twilight. It's implied that she has even more raw talent than her but she a) doesn't have the technical knowledge, and b) can't really control it because she's too emotionally driven, that's why most Glimmer episodes are about her stressing too much and fucking up by not being able to control her powers.
>>41505761I mean, it is dumb but I don't Starlight's problem was just that Sunburst moved away, but that people separate each other because of their special talents and other people's expectations about them. Granted, it was presented awfully, there are thousands of ways of doing that theme better using the same two characters, but IMO it was never about just Sunburst (or anyone) being taken away, it doesn't make sense considering that she tried to control a town taking away everyone's individuality. That flashback, as awful as it is, in my opinion, doesn't try to imply that she went mad because they took Sunburst away, but because they took him away because of his new magic powers.
