@Ardashir  
Considering that she has a negligent attitude to basically everything, I think she deserves it.

@Ring Team  
I can agree with most of your listed reasons except for the one about Discord. He was being such an ass (endangering the students, among other things) in that episode he deserved the magical equivalent of a kick in the rear.

I remember watching the season 5 finale back in 2015. And while I didn’t dislike it, I thought this ending was… weird. It felt rushed, like someone pressed the Stop button in the DVD.
 
I think this ending would have been fine if:  
-Starlight got 6 episodes for her character development in season 5 instead of just Cutie map and Cutie re-mark.  
-Starlight’s magic wasn’t that OP to the point where she was more powerful than an alicorn.  
-Her backstory wasn’t that irrational and childish. Her backstory should have been a bridge that would allow the audience to feel sorry for her even though that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Kinda like Sunset Shimmer and Babs Seed.
 
But still, regardless of how people feel about Starlight (whether you like her or not), her redemption arc is completely invalidated by the following scenes from seasons 7, 8 and 9.
 
She forced Big Macintosh with magic to talk to her with quotes like “I can’t be friends with somepony who doesn’t talk”.
 

 
She mind controlled Twilight’s friends and didn’t see anything wrong with it until told otherwise by Twilight.
 

 
Forcibly swapped the cutie marks of Celestia and Luna without their consent.
 

 
She met Maud Pie and said that that she likes rocks because they don’t judge you… despite what she has done in the past.
 

 
She also doesn’t empathise with Rarity and her hair issue. Does she have a problem? I don’t care, as long as it’s not mine. According to Starlight, Hell is other people.
 

 
She used time travel spells and transformed her best friend into a child, ignoring all his objections.
 

 
Starlight basically encouraged Twilight to reopen her new school that was shut down for valid reasons.
 

 
She told Twilight in a condescending way that she’s not a princess-princess.
 

 
She blasted Discord to kingdom come for heckling her.
 

 
Despite considering Trixie one of her best friends, she traded away her home without her consent and gets angry at her for being upset about it.
 

 
And speaking about Trixie, despite considering her and Sunburst her two best friends, she constantly ignored not only Trixie, but also her goal to properly prepare a party for Sunburst.
 

 
It’s really hard to empathize to Starlight when she constantly does things like this. She’s a unrepentant negligent character who doesn’t want to change. She wants to get away with it, ignoring her initial wish to be redeemed and to get better and ingnoring any sense of responsibility. She’s a very conflicting character with situations where the story being told in dialogue conflicts with the story being told during actions. A sadistic manipulative cruel selfish character with no desire of having a redemption arc.
 
I mean… why would you like a character that does stuff like this?
 
All that said, I can’t be that angry or frustrated for two things:
 

Glimmy got what she deserves.

Court dismissed!!!! pounds gavel

@armadiloeater  
that only applies to dragon ball  
not mlp  
see it’s about time for a reference

@Background Pony #DCD6
 
No, it’s OK because Starlight refused to continue doing it. That’s the power of forgiveness; going from one accursed existence to a blessed one instantly. If a person’s indeed redeemed, what? Is there a point to punishing them any more than their past sins already punished them (and believe me, Sin IS punishment) or are you trying to acquire nightmares of your own?
 
BTW, actually even if people don’t seem to do it it is celebrated that a person who almost but not quite makes a big error, doesn’t. The celebration is the effect of not doing it.

@Brony_Conundrum
 
Party on, little ’gator.

@Background Pony #DCD6  

@Brony_Conundrum
 
The party never ends as long as I’m around.

@Background Pony #DCD6  
I think you’re a wee bit late to the party, friend.

“It’s all okay because it technically didn’t happen!”
 
Scenario 1  
>man recklessly fires gun into the air  
>bullet comes down  
>hits some kid  
>kid dies  
>man sentenced to prison for manslaughter
 
Scenario 2  
>man seconds from from firing gun recklessly into the air  
>told not to  
>k  
>man apologizes  
>man not sentenced for endangerment  
>local hero saves child’s life by not shooting into the air, gets the Medal of Honor
 
We don’t award people for almost, but not quite, doing something horrible. If it was like, stealing a pack of gum or something like that that she wanted to do, fine, I’ll forgive you, thank you for knowing better, but fucking up life as we know it isn’t something you let slide because “never mind LOL”.
 
“But she didn’t know what would happen!”
 
>Mane 6 repeatedly touted as being essential for the safety of Equestria  
>nothing bad could possibly come from screwing with their lives, right?
 
>explicitly shown the negative impact of her actions  
>but muh childhood was literally worse than hitler!
 
Nope, not good enough. Ignorance is not a defense.
 
“People can change/deserve a second chance, punishment only makes you bad, etc.”
 
>ponies let her get away without punishment  
>dedicates the entirety of her time since plotting to ruin the M6s’ lives
 
No, she had her chance. If she had owned up originally and said something like, “I’m sorry I was a damn oppressive hypocrite who preached standards that I would never want to live up to myself, please forgive me, I just wanted friends!” I probably would have been more satisfied, but this was just a horrible way to handle a reformation.
 
>inb4 “durr, why u so mad/it’s not that big a deal, don’t have opinions about it, lol”

@Stotter
 
I saw that XD

Starlight: You know, when you say it like that, it makes it sound like some kind of punishment.  
Twilight: Yeah. Wednesday’s monopoly night. I suggest you bring a lot of scotch and a garbage bag.

@MetaKnight145  
I agree.

@Starswirl  
That’s basically what she was though.  
A grown child throwing a tantrum because she is narcissistic and unable to feel proud for someone other than herself for getting their cutiemark.

@Mojo  
I don’t disagree about your point of both redemptions having been rushed. However, there’s the additional fact of the ending of Sunset’s ambition having had a much more serious tone to it. Lying on the bottom of a crater, in a pool of her own tears, visibly damaged from the ordeal… it was just more powerful.
 
Starlight’s redemption felt like talking down a child throwing a tantrum.

@Brony_Conundrum  
It would be more correct to say that all those timelines were wiped out of existence. But they still did happen. Those ponies in those alternate universe still suffered for years. And then they were all erased in a flash. If you subscribe to that theory.
 
Frankly I don’t see how thinking that those timelines were erased is any better than thinking they still exist in parallel. I prefer the DBZ timeline theory, where each time you go back you create a new universe, and you can’t take it back.

@headlessrainbow  
If Zecora’s reaction to rubbing that salve on Twilight is any indication, the MLP universe seems to operate on Back to the Future logic when it comes to time travel – if you change something in the past, it overwrites everything in the future. So basically, all the bad timelines just didn’t happen once Starlight came to her senses.

I always thought that once alternate timelines were created, they always heppen, even if they’re re-prevented in the primary timeline, in which case she is still responsible for thousands if not millions of deaths.

@Amethyst_Crystal
 
You know why? Because Twilight was physically forced to talk down Starlight. She couldn’t defeat her any other way. All those other villains were defeated through force or rainbow magic. Twi even says as much. She had to hope and pray that Star would stop of her own volition. Which she was willing to do. That gave Twi the confidence to believe she could be befriended.

@Background Pony #923F  
I’d have to ask why Tirek and Sombra and Chrysalis didn’t get forgiveness and rehab then.  
The only difference between Starlight and these 3 monsters is that…  
no wait, Sombra is a pony too.  
Hmm.

@Background Pony #BA5A  

 
Starlight propaganda.  
I will not succumb to momentary adorbs.

@Bonklefan99  
Damn double post…

@Brony_Conundrum  
Lol