In retrospect, this makes my ‘friendship fate’ upload  
that I posted right before the s5 finale look  
disingenuous and cynical, because I’m willing to make exceptions  
totally awesome and satisfying, proving that Twilight knows what she’s doing.
 
But, I wanted a less ham-fisted and rushed redemption without glossing over everything.
 
The audience is bombarded with terrible tragic ‘what if’ experiences,  
only to find out shortly after she recklessly created these horrible AU futures because…
 
_a friend of Starlight’s moved away when she was a filly,  
because he found out his special talent, and went to persue it, and seemed pretty happy too?_?
 
Maybe there’s more to it than that, but it wasn’t shown or explained.  
Instead it was huge mood whiplash in a bad way.  
Even if the AUs technically never happen, the emotional weight of them is still on the viewer’s chest.
 
It feels like Starlight gets special treatment for being a callous genocidal ex-dictator…  
who was too selfish to accept something that makes her friend happy.
 
wait what? See what I mean?
 
Hopefully they’ll add more to this redemption to make it feel real, like they did with Discord and Sunset (eventually)…
 
P.S.: I loved the results of S3 and S4 finale though. :D