Starlight Glimmer is a magic-using unicorn mare with a strong proficiency in advanced unicorn magic. Her specialties include teleportation, transfiguration, self-duplication and invisibility.
She also possesses the ability to drain ponies of their talents by stealing their Cutie Marks and replacing them with an equal sign that suppresses their abilities.
Her Cutie Mark
Starlight is a unicorn mare with a pinkish-purple coat, purple eyes and a long, mint-striped mane that’s bang cut in front and curls in the back. Her cutie mark is the shape of a compass with a swirl line.
The compass cutie mark symbolizes her talent for finding and navigating her way through life. It also represents her love for adventure and discovery, as seen in her eagerness to travel the world and meet new ponies.
When she first received her cutie mark, Starlight felt insecure and jealous that Sunburst earned his own before her. Her insecurities eventually drove her into a dark place and she became bitter, vicious, and cruel to everyone around her.
Her evil deeds were the result of her desire for revenge on Twilight, who caused the Sonic Rainboom that took away all of their cutie marks. She believed that if the Mane Six could not have their own talents, they must be miserable as well. This is evident in her treatment of the others in town.
In addition to her vengeance, she was greedy and selfish and a poor friend. She was often sarcastic and mocking, even towards her friends. Her personality traits made her seem like a villain when she was being unkind to others, but her eventual redemption and transformation into an actual supportive character made her a much-better pony in the end.
She was finally able to find herself after Twilight convinced her that she must change. She still has a bit of her old ways, but she’s more friendly and loving now.
Symbolic cutie marks are those that are more personal and meaningful to the pony. Rarity’s is an example of this as her cutie mark shows the design of her very first dress. Then there are abstract cutie marks, such as Cheerilee’s. The compass and swirl cutie mark is a perfect example of this because it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s an image that she identifies with.
In the season 5 premiere, The Cutie Map – Part 1 and Part 2, Starlight Glimmer uses her magic to remove a pony’s cutie mark. Instead of removing the cutie mark completely, she sprays it with a equal sign that adds a gray tone to the victim’s color and disrupts their talents. However, she later reveals that this “equals” mark is actually a fake, which she painted over to hide it.
Her Mane
In her debut appearance, she has her mane and tail arranged in a ponytail, which is adorned with mint streaks. She also wears a purple tiara with a fake equal sign that covers her real cutie mark. Starlight Glimmer is a former villain with a twisted sense of what friendship should be. She is a self-proclaimed “friendship expert” and has a natural talent for magic. However, she is a hypocritical, selfish, greedy, deceitful, mean-spirited, vengeful, megalomaniacal, and nihilistic individual, easily frustrated when her plans don’t go according to her wishes.
She first appeared in season five’s two-part premiere, “The Cutie Map”, as the founder and leader of a village where she convinced everypony to magically remove their cutie marks in order to build a perfectly equal society because she believes differences cause disharmony between friends until Twilight and her friends came to her village and exposed her ruse. Later, she seeks revenge on Twilight by time traveling back in history and stopping her from performing her first Sonic Rainboom.
However, she has since become more reformed, especially after her friendship with Fluttershy and eventually becoming one of the teachers at the School of Friendship. She is now more understanding of others, showing patience and kindness to her students.
Despite her improved nature, she still has a tendency to get nervous around others and sometimes has trouble dealing with difficult situations or things that she doesn’t understand. She often fumbles her words and speaks slowly when she is stressed, a habit she picked up from her childhood.
She is also prone to having a nervous breakdown when she is faced with something challenging or difficult. During these episodes, she becomes overwhelmed with anxiety and begins to sweat profusely. This occurrence is often referred to as “Twilighting” and is a common symptom of PTSD.
Her Eyes
Starlight is a unicorn mare with purple eyes and a pinkish-purple coat. Her cutie mark consists of a purple diamond with two streams of turquoise above it. Her mane is in a ponytail and she has mint streaks in it. When she first appeared on the show, her cutie mark was covered with a fake equal sign.
Starlight’s magic is tied to her emotions. The stronger she feels, the more powerful her spells are. She can create illusions of herself, manipulate objects, and even teleport, all with the power of her gaze.
When she first appeared, Starlight was clumsy and cowardly. She hid behind her magical talents and used the name of an old friend who died to conceal her past. Later, she became a much more confident and determined character, though she still needed Twilight’s help in order to overcome her fears and find her own way as a leader.
In season six, Starlight reformed and began learning the ways of friendship as Twilight’s student until she graduated in season seven after defeating Queen Chrysalis and bringing harmony to the Changeling Kingdom. In season eight, she became the School of Friendship’s guidance counselor to help the students with their problems.
The Netflix series Behind Her Eyes initially had the air of one of those sexy adult thrillers from the 1990s. It starred Louise (Simona Brown), a single mom with a troubled past who meets David (Tom Bateman) at a bar and begins to have night terrors and a dark secret that will be shrouded in secrecy for multiple episodes.
While it is nice that the show takes some of its themes and ideas from this genre, the biggest problem with the series is that it sacrifices tonal consistency for big twists and shocks. Moreover, it feels like it was trying to be a thriller but couldn’t decide whether to stick with the genre or not.
Her Ears
Starlight is an extremely powerfull magic user. She has teleportation, transfiguration, super speed spells and she can control her own body with her mind (like make self-duplication or rewind time). She can fly and has a very good agility. She’s able to dodge laser beams in middle air or even accelerate her physicials. She also knows how to use her magic to enhance others’ abilities and can read minds.
Her magic is tied to her emotions. Like the Hulk her anger makes her stronger magic-wise. She’s also very smart. She’s able to learn new spells very fast and has a lot of knowledge about her magical universe. She’s also experienced in magic duels and can fight with multiple enemies at once, very strong or godlike creatures (Like Grogar who’s a planetary level reality warper or Tirek who’s a godlike monster).
In season five she was spying on Twilight during the Cutie Map episode. She wanted to convince her friends to give up their cutie marks because she believed they only pulled them apart. She created a community that didn’t have cutie marks, which allowed her to spy on them. When Twilight found out she ran away, but Starlight returned in the season finale to get her revenge on Twilight by manipulating time.
When Twilight was crowned a princess in the season seven premiere, she took Starlight as her student to teach her about the magic of friendship. She later became the School of Friendship’s guidance counselor in season eight and then was promoted to head mare when Twilight left for Equestria. Throughout the series, Starlight is shown to be confident and independent but she’s still sometimes fearful of taking on leadership roles. She often doubts herself when faced with new challenges, but she proves to be a talented leader once she gains confidence. She’s also shown to have a natural talent for kite flying and is a good leader when it comes to teamwork. Lastly, she is very kind and understanding when it comes to her friends.