>>1186>What I really liked about Glimmer was how she was handled in her first appearanceSame. I really, genuinely liked her a lot.
Unfortunately, while that was being written, someone on the writing team fell in love with this character, and it showed in all the wrong ways.
Glimmer, in her second appearance (Not counting cameos, which I liked)...
Glimmer is suddenly persuasive enough to convince two bullying schoolfoals and their victim and their victim's best friend to stop bullying, make nice, forgive each other, and give up on the ideals of competition, "Outsmarting Twilight and forcing her to defend bullying".
She pulls this off in under ten seconds, offscreen, and it just works because it's her. She does something that should be impossible, and it just works, because it's her. And Twilight can't defend against this... because someone behind the scenes lowered Twilight's IQ to make sure she didn't make a short speech about the importance of competition or think to say to Filly Rainbow Dash "I'm you from the future and the world goes to shit if you don't pull a Sonic Rainboom off right now".
Glimmer is suddenly so magically powerful that with just simple shields and lasers, and the occasional other spell, she can battle a fully-bloodlusted Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle to a standstill. Multiple times in one day. While levitating herself using her own magical power. And stopping Rainbow Dash from pulling the Sonic Rainboom off, often blasting her.
1. Everything that made Twilight's power special or notable is now moot, because this mare is just as strong as her, maybe even stronger.
2. Friendship isn't magic any more. The pony that embodies friendship and is empowered by it is losing to a villain sue only someone that hasn't noticed what I've noticed can love. A mean thing to say, sure, but it has yet to be proven false by a single solitary Glimmer fan.
3. I'm alright with characters corrupted and empowered by an evil amulet overpowering Twilight, I'm alright with mad gods of chaos and demons powered by stolen Equestrian magic overpowering Twilight, but Starlight is just some random asshole, and this random asshole is making Twilight look like a rank amateur without even breaking a sweat, shitting all over her life and timeline in the process. There's no prophecy here. She's just suddenly so OP, it hurts the show and its setting and everything Twilight stands for as a character.
Even putting aside what she is now and what the writers have been doing with her, it's clear her character was derailed from "Intelligent, charismatic, and evil but narrow-minded communist asshole that genuinely thought what she was doing was right and could have arguably been right when you remember the early-season bullies" to "Amazingly perfect super-asshole that'll shit on Equestria and kill millions and fuck everything up just to piss the hero off". She's gone from a great villain to a bad HIE/DBZ villain.
Did it surprise anyone here when she was eventually handed unearned forgiveness, allowed onto the "Side of good", and allowed to frequently indulge in her only character traits(Evil wizard, social skill levels depend on the plot, likes kites) ad nauseum without consequences? Did it surprise anyone when this "Perfect" character was turned into the show's new main character and given connections to other OCs, like becoming Maud's new friend and becoming friends with Thorax because plot and becoming friends with Trixie because every shilled hero needs a shadow, removing what depth and likability Trixie could have potentially had as her own mare?
Glimmer is flawed, in the sense that she's a terrible person. But the writers expect us to forgive her for this, even though she hasn't earned it. She sometimes mentions that some ponies haven't forgiven her, but we never see a Fluttershy-style scene where ponies are a dick to her. The writers don't want to write that. They don't want a Korra Alone-type episode where even the cuntiest cunt can be made sympathetic through the magic of suffering. They want her to write her as this loveable tragically flawed character everyone should love and forgive for being literal shit, and they're going to keep shilling her at the show's expense because of this. I think she has the most insane fans because they identify with her, being literal shit, and love seeing themselves have fun in a fantasy world where nopony holds their shittiness against them.