Featherweight is arrested for foalnographic pictures, but the case isn't as simple as it looks: they're pictures he took of himself when he was a colt.
Now Twilight Sparkle must decide whether to intervene in the interest of justice.
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- Member Since 18th Oct, 2014
- offline last seen Saturday
Trick Question
Being against evil doesn't make you good.
Trick Question
Joined 18th Oct, 2014 ·
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Kinda brief and telly. Thought-provoking, sure, but it ends up missing a bit of 'meat,' if that's the right word. Some points where a silence or just heavy thinking might have added a little more impact to it.
Also, the cover art is a strange choice for this sort of story. Still, good for thought-provoking.
Edit: full disclosure, though, this is coming from someone who overthinks things way too much, and would have expected more twists as a result. It's good as a straightforward story.
8805946
I agree for the most part.
This is a story that would work well in a much longer form with actual choices, consequences, and character growth. But it'd be psychologically painful to write and wouldn't add to the message (for me at least), which is why I left it as a minific.
8805968
Yeah, I can understand that. Some stories are experiments, and I'd say this one's a successful one. I hope you get more feedback on it, gather some data for future works.
Interesting and valid issues.. I for one am glad I am not in Twilight's shoes FOR ANYTHING. From a quick glance this is strait forward but as they say the devil is in the details
i'd have pardoned him. no question. he was charged for the crimes and accused from pictures of himself. i frown at being considered a criminal for that. and he's made t clear he has never, nor would ever do anything.
This is good. I like this kind of questions. What is right and wrong? What makes right right and wrong wrong? If you were in the characters positions what would you have done and felt? Personally, I would have signed the pardon and I argue like this: I don't think it is right to imprison every man because they might rape a woman. Following that principle, a risk alone does not make a crime.
And then she did
And maximum expected number of ponies all lived happily after
In relation to the show itself I've always seen this:
bristlesbabbles.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/maxresdefault1.jpg?w=656
as a very similar kind of decision (with even higher stakes).
... And then Twilight deemed him guilty, which then set the legal parameters of foalnography.
The next day all the parents of Equestria was arrested for having foalnographic pictures of the newly born foals in their family albums....
8806255
Plus, what Featherweight wants and how it's approached aren't outside the realm of possibility. He says there's no cure. He's a pegasus, how would he know? Any qualified unicorn can burn it out of his mind and no longer make his illegal desires a risk. Likewise, he can be given therapy and false memories, but would he still be himself? Getting into issues of nature vs nurture there. Or he can take the harmless indulgence route. This is a setting where regression spells have been shown to exist, consenting adults can be regressed for a time. Heck, an animated doll could do the trick.
It's probably the wealth of options that makes the open ending such an appealing option. There's a lot of ways for it to go well beyond Twilight's decision, but there's a lot of ways it can end horribly, horribly wrong for everyone involved.
I'd have pardoned Feather, they're only pictures of himself and that alone was what he was accused for. He hasn't actively done anything wrong, and from the looks of it, he really doesn't want to molest anyone. The very idea alone seems to sicken him. Very thought provoking story.
I wish more people were like Twilight here. Everyone is so obsessed with punishment these days. No one has any empathy for criminals.
8806110
There is an enomous difference between a pedophile and a man. Use another example.
8806998
Perhaps a highly autistic/shy man who has no hope of having sex unless it is rape?
(I'm not saying autistic = rapist here, this is just a fictional example.)
8806332
I think you kinda intended to reply to Makuta, not me
I would pardon him. He is no criminal, he just has a mental illness that he needs to learn to live with. Then again I would not need to pardon him, when he made the pictures he would not have been able to be convicted, therefore the charges of production are moot. At best his parents might be convicted because they did not have enough of an eye on their foals activities. The photos were made by himself, of his own free will without any coercion, therefore there is no victim. No Victim = No Case.
8807147
The charges that weren't dropped were related to him keeping the images as an adult. If ownership is a crime, he's guilty for what he's done only recently. (I'm not arguing for or against it, just explaining the legal rationale.)
8807392
True. If you take the letter of the law. But the reason why such images are illegal in the first place is due to the mental damages inflicted on the victim by their creation and continued existence. Since there was no victim, there are no damages done which technically robs the pictures of what made them illegal in the first place. But that is as stated just a technicality and the letter of the law tends to be more often than not be treated as gospel. In my humble opinion, pictures of yourself you make yourself of your own free will should never be illegal no matter what they might depict.
He should be pardoned as they were pics of himself, and if they were naked, MLP ponies are naked most of the time.
8807478
they were not simply nudes. That would not be pornographic in nature and therefore not illegal. They become illegal once they fulfill one or more of the following criteria: The person depicted is in some manner visibly aroused (Hard penis, wet vagina, etc)
The person is touching himself or others in a clearly sexual manner (Masturbation, petting)
The picture shows sexual intercourse of any manner
Since he stated to have never interacted with the subjects of his desires (colts of a vastly younger age then him at that time) we can assume that the pictures at least depicted him in a state of arousal if not outright while masturbating
mind: This was the law here in Germany the last time i bothered to check. I do not claim that this is universally right.
And... you're in the featured stories scroll on the front page... again.
8807130
No, I was replying to you. You make a good point about Twilight looking out for the best possible result for everyone. My take on it is that she might find a solution even Featherweight hasn't considered yet.
Starlight is another good comparison: she didn't want to do evil deeds, she wanted her friend back and her means were evil, while her revenge was so petty she didn't realise she had what she wanted right at her hooftips; all she had to do was change history to keep Sunburst around or even follow him. But she got what she wanted in the end because another solution was offered.
8807916
I do that sometimes, yeah. Unfortunately I'm not hitting the larger box (the one that includes Mature stories)—there was too much porn in the box this weekend.
(This is actually one of my worst stories rating-wise, but it's easier to hit the box on a Monday.)
8807101
Why use the word ¨man¨ again? gender and mental illness are two different things.
A better example would be;
-Would you let a psychopath runs free because he said he woudn't kill?
-Would you let a pedophile runs free because he didn't do anything yet?
interesting story
always remember there's a difference between child abuser and pedophile
That's why common sense should also play a role in lawmaking. Are they going to jail colts who masturbate in their sleep for foalrape too? I mean, they couldn't give consent, right? They were asleep.
I read this shortly after it came out. Sorry for not commenting until your blog poked me, but... I'm really not sure what to think here. This is such a tangled knot of moral and ethical issues that I don't feel like there's any right answer. Every option sets a dangerous precedent.
Put bluntly and flippantly, it's a Tricky story.
8808608
Well first you have to explain to me what the differences is between a man and a pedophile (yes I am serious). Does being a pedophile somehow prevent you from being a man? Or a woman for that matter? My point in my argument was that that one has to be consistent in ones beliefs. If I think that by simply being a risk is not enough to be imprisoned then that has to hold true for everything. So if men are a risk for women but I do not think that is enough to justify their imprisonment I must thereby also say that just by being a pedophile and a risk for children, you are not a criminal. And yes, the same goes for psychopaths.
As for mental illness: Just being a psychopath for example is not illegal and should not be. Murder however is. Yes there is a risk. But If being a risk is enough for imprisonment then you have to be consistent.
8808702
You are comparing the risk of a voclano to the risk of a stick and a stone.
8808931
Prove it.
8808931
Actually this isn't true. We can't assess the risk without knowing what proportion of pedofoals offend, and the taboo is so incredibly strong it's impossible to assess how many people are secretly attracted to children. It could be a substantial portion of the population, in which case the analogy would be comparable. Plus rape of adults is more common than sexual abuse of children.
8808087
)
A teeny-tiny nerdy correction: there is no such thing as "best possible result for everyone" in the presence of multiple conflicting interests --- only lots and lots of Pareto optima. Realization that even in the very best and happy case Twilight will have to trade off one Pareto optimum for another is a major source of unease here (in addition to reasoning on incomplete information).
(rational choice theory, yay!
8808608
I don't see fundamental difference from example with men here: if I remember correctly, psychopathy prevalence in population is ~1%, so there are ~7*107 psychopaths in the world and most of them are running free and not killing anyone (like most of men are running free and not raping anyone). Although prevalence among prisoners is significantly higher, so psychopathy is indeed a Bayesian evidence of being a bad guy,
8806110
Yea that’s one of the reason I hate the whole involuntary incarceration for mental patients things. It’s locking up people for the possibilty they might commit a crime, not the action it’s self. And that’s a short road to authoritarianism there.
And on top of all of that from what I’ve heard “Prisoners” at mental institutions are on average less likely to commit a violent crime then your average person. Hell, if you’re going by probability of commiting a crime a justification for incarceration, myswell arrest all black ghetto teenagers while you’re at it.
Edit: Fuck mobile keyboards
8809619
Not directly killing anyone, just becoming CEOs, politicians, and doctors so that a blue-collar worker is paid so little that she can't afford to pay Grandpa's incredibly expensive medical bills...
8878271
Unfortunately that kind of stuff doesn't necessary require the presence of evil guys among politicians and CEOs at all
"To modify an old aphorism: usually, when things suck, it’s because they suck in a way that’s a Nash equilibrium."
Topics like what the appropriate age to be considered of age of an adult, what rights are where and why has always been of huge interest. And how times change things. Even just in my lifetime. I just wish that talking openly and considering all points of veiw wrong or not, ya know like thinking adults, turns a lot of people into rage machines.
Interesting topic to be tackled. Could be expanded more. Though I love th open endedness of the ending leaving readers to decided what they think the best course of action
This is going to be the rare story I read and do not review because I simply have no thoughts on it. None whatsoever.
10914307
That's an interesting thought.
10914379
Definitely fine with the T-rating though.
8806895
I'm looking at this comment years later and continue to be saddened by the number of downvotes it received for merely suggesting people should have empathy for criminals. Most bronies learned very little from Friendship is Magic.