art by GaelleDragons

Since the show began, many of the best slice-of-life episodes have been the ones that pair up two of the Mane Six and focus on their characters and interactions, how they play off of each other in a situation that has significance to them both. With nearly six seasons, we have seen some pairings quite a bit, but others are a precious rarity – case in point, Rainbow Dash and Rarity. In the previous episode, “Viva Las Pegasus”, the writers treated us to our second Applejack/Fluttershy episode in six seasons. As I said in my Afterthoughts for that episode, I definitely want to see more of those two together. But I believe we have now seen all possible combinations of the Mane Six.

If I had one complaint about Season Six, it would be too little Starlight Glimmer. After having started out so strongly for her with the season opening, we have seen surprisingly little of our new mane character. At the beginning of the season, I had really been hoping for slice-of-life episodes that paired her with each of the Mane Six. Considering how impressive and enjoyable nearly every episode has been this season, it is a lack that I can easily forgive. (I do hope for that still next season!)

And this episode, “Every Little Thing She Does”, gives us an excuse for her having not been seen a lot more this year: Starlight Glimmer has been actively avoiding friendship lessons.

And admittedly, this is an issue that wouldn’t have nearly the foundation it does if there hadn’t been so many Starlight-free episodes between “No Second Prances” and “Every Little Thing She Does”. (Although I would say it didn’t have to be quite as many as we got.)

art by Potzm

(As a side note: I know that the finale has been leaked. I am avoiding it until it airs, so my Afterthoughts do not take into account things that some of you might know from having seen it.)

“Every Little Thing She Does” is a very interesting episode. The initial conflict leads to silly mind-control shenanigans that are a familiar cartoon staple but nonetheless quite fun. (And the aftermath was even more so! Much like “28 Pranks Later” allowed the cast and crew of the show to give us a family-friendly zombie apocalypse, “Every Little Thing She Does” allowed them to give us hungover ponies! And it was hilarious.)

But what is the lesson of “Every Little Thing She Does”? After all, the most obvious lesson, in the words of Rainbow Dash, is “DON’T CAST SPELLS ON YOUR FRIENDS!” But that doesn’t really translate well into a real-world moral. The episode has another lesson it is trying to teach. And it revolves around Starlight Glimmer’s anxiety over activities and social situations outside her comfort zone.

art by Light262

I must admit, I temporarily considered combining my review of “Every Little Thing She Does” and “P.P.O.V.” because I consider them to be strongly thematically linked. But then I realized they aren’t uniquely paired, but rather just how well this episode also flows with the conflicts and lessons from several previous episodes in the season.

Like Discord in “Dungeons and Discords”, Starlight tries to force activities with others into a model she is familiar with. But Discord does so out of ego and a self-important disinterest in pastimes outside of his comfort zone. Starlight Glimmer does so because she lacks confidence to engage in things beyond her (hyper-competent but limited) skill set, and she struggles with a fear of failure that has plagued her since “The Crystalling”.

When she is performing within her wheelhouse – magic – she soars, always impressive. But when asked to step outside that, she becomes a nervous wreck. Especially since she treats every friendship lesson as a performance before a critic she can’t bear to let down. So the moment she thinks things might be going south, it is fairly natural that Starlight Glimmer resorts to magic to try to tackle her friendship lessons.

As the saying goes, “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”

vector by Uponia

Starlight Glimmer’s core fear is failure. It causes her to bite off more than she can handle in an attempt to impress Twilight. It even causes her to miss the point of the lessons entirely because she is too focused on meeting Twilight’s approval. To this end, Starlight Glimmer’s struggle is very similar to that of Zephyr Breeze. But where Zephyr gives up before he starts, and sabotages himself to avoid trying and failing, Starlight goes way overboard in her efforts, focusing on conquering the stated objectives at the expense of the actual lesson.

Considering the similarity to her brother’s issues in “Flutter Brutter”, I would have liked seeing Fluttershy take a more active role in helping Starlight Glimmer through the resolution. It would have made a nice continuation from that prior episode.

The easy lesson in this episode is that we need to be open to new things, new experiences and new friendships. The desire to play it safe, to never leave your personal comfort zone, is both understandable and powerful. Far too many of us far too easily allow ourselves to become shut-ins. As Zephyr Breeze was with jobs, others of us are with relationships. To never try means to never fail. To never put yourself out there, to never risk friendship, means to never be hurt. So instead, we never stray, allowing our comfort zone to become our prison, and eventually our coffin.

vector by Imalou

Friendship is magic. It is arguably the most powerful positive force in our lives. Even the stronger and more intimate bonds of companionship must be grounded in friendship. We are stronger with it. We are happier with it. And we are weaker without it. Exceptionally vulnerable, I would add. While solitude may seem like the safe zone before the minefield, you really do yourself no favors by avoiding the opportunity to gain a friend.

This episode reminds us, quite importantly, that before we can gain true friends, we have to take that step. We need to make the effort and have the willingness to step outside that comfort zone. Even for those of us with many friends, this is an important thing to remember. For every one we have helps us become better people ourselves, and becoming someone else’s friend may be throwing them the lifeline they so direly need.

What should never have to be a lesson (yet is sadly topical) is that we must always be respectful of others and of their boundaries. We must never allow ourselves to become so focused on what we want or what we are trying to accomplish that we simply use others. It is never, ever, under any circumstances acceptable to treat other people like objects to satisfy your will.

“You treated mares as toys, violating them for your own desires, Starlight Glimmer!”

“I can no longer endorse you for President!”

The trickier lesson is for us to understand that other people have difficulty and anxiety with this, sometimes to a severe degree. Twilight was absolutely surprised, even after all we have seen, to realize that baking a cake with a friend is a stressful situation for Starlight Glimmer. Even now that she knows, it remains to be seen how well Twilight has internalized this understanding. For people who do not have this anxiety, it can be hard to empathize with people who do. We have to be not only willing to reach out the hand of friendship, but to be patient and understanding when it is not immediately taken, or when the person we are reaching out to shies away.

art by luminaura

What I was most impressed about in this episode was how well it was set up, and not only with the now-explained lack of Starlight episodes. This insecurity of Starlight’s has been well-established, and her tendency to turn to magic to solve her problems was touched on in “No Second Prances” when she used magic on Big Macintosh. Even the existence of mind-control spells was foreshadowed in “The Crystalling”

Once Starlight Glimmer made that terrible choice, fairly run-of-the-mill hijinks ensued. The best part of these, by far, was the snippets of Applejack in the background, her spell-enforced condensing of Apple family stories into single sentences resulting in highly amusing movie riffs that left me (and I’m sure many others) wanting to know the whole story behind them. These culminated in the exceptionally applicable, “With a whole lot of power comes a heck of a lot of responsibility.”

While this is unlikely to be an episode I will spend much time re-watching, I do very much appreciate what it was trying to teach. And I am happy to see Starlight Glimmer again.

art by SilFoe

Minor castings:

By Celestia’s purring mane, Starlight Glimmer is OP! Even Twilight is thinking, “Plz nerf!”

Speaking of, Twilight should really know better than to practice combat magic in her library.

I love that Starlight Glimmer has Trixie pictures in her bedroom.

“They can take our farm, but they can't take our freedom!”

I am pleased that the Mane Six were both understanding and forgiving of Starlight at the end of the episode. I must admit, it would be far harder for me to be so in their place. For that reason, I also like how Pinkie Pie held onto her anger a little longer. That made their reactions feel more real.

I thought the cobweb-infested hall of the castle was rather cool.

Spike’s friendship with Starlight and they way they play off each other makes the two of them one of the most enjoyable pairings in the show.