On Friendship, Forgiveness and REVENGE · 2:02am May 2nd, 2016
You know who needs a hug?
This pone needs a hug.
You know why she needs a hug?
FOR REVENGE
You see, with the fandom calling for her blood every time her mere existence is alluded to in the show, and with how often she seems to appear in season 6, cries for bloody vengeance seem to be all I hear around here right now.
And I'm like, "does she really deserve to be punished?"
And in a way, yeah. I mean, she did jump horn-first into time shenanigans with bad intentions.
But I do believe that the ponies would be absolutely fucking pants-on-head out of their damn minds to punish her in the way the fandom keeps calling for.
And I think that because friendship.
Yeah, friendship.
You know, that little insignificant boring thing that's literally the most powerful force of the universe the ponies inhabit?
Yeah, that.
Setting aside the legality and nature of what she did or did not actually end up doing for real or not, and whether or not it deserves punishment at all, the most basic and important of her offenses was that she did not believe in friendship.
And That's her most damning crime.
Because in the reality of the ponies, Friendship has been repeatedly demonstrated as the single most powerful force in the universe. Friendship can literally do any-goddamn-thing. Friendship is the ultimate power, the ultimate good in the world, the ultimate means to whatever ends you may wish to attain. It's not only a good thing for people's mental health, it's also the single best thing anyone can do for themselves, their loved ones, society in general and all of the entire world.
To oppose or hinder friendship in any way is thus the most foolish thing anyone could ever do. It's basically the worst crime you could commit in Equestria.
The choice of what to do with an enemy, then, is a choice between creating a new infinity of good and power in the world or "avenging" whatever crime they committed by committing the infinitely worse crime of destroying a possible friendship. Starlight's negative actions, even if you accept the inclusion of destroying entire realities within those, is still nothing compared to the literal infinity of positive actions being friends with her will allow.
Even setting aside the moral implications and examining things through the most cynical, detached, pragmatic lens I can find; having Starlight rotting in a cell somewhere, while satisfying on some level, would accomplish nothing good. She would not help anyone do anything, she would not contribute to society in any way, and she would most likely only learn the lesson of "not doing horrible things", instead of learning the much better "actually doing good things" one. On the other hand, being friends with her directly leads to her being a better person in a much more positive way, allows her to contribute good things to the world, and reinforces the all-powerful deus ex amicitia.
What better revenge is there than turning an enemy into an asset? What better punishment for a villain than making them contribute to the thing they used to oppose? Friendship will shape her into a better person, a person capable of regretting her past actions, and torturing herself with remorse. Isn't that a much worse punishment than letting her stew in a cell and push all her resentment onto the ponies who put her there?
Like, I can see no logical, moral, or tactical reason for putting her in a cell instead of being friends with her. Only weak, irrational, wrong animalistic sentimentality votes for her punishment. It's the fandom dragging our flawed human "justice" in a world unlike ours where friendship is the ultimate, objective good. Calling for her blood has no place in that world.
Twilight and the rest of the ponies would not only be insane to do so, they would be philosophically wrong on every level if they decided to punish her.
So yeah, Starlight needs hugs, because Friendship is the most potent, useful, efficient and just punishment anyone could ever give her.
But seriously, the amount of hate she gets is ludicrous and insane. I'm rooting for her more than I normally would just to balance how ridiculous people are being about her. I decided to write this just to get it off my chest.
Don't forget about Trixie! She needs hugs, too!
But yeah, the amount of hate Starlight gets is ridiculous. I mean, I don't exactly lean one way or the other when it comes to Starlight's character, but she definitely doesn't deserve the crap she gets on a daily basis. But knowing this fandom, it'll keep chugging along, regardless of whether the pony in question is reformed, villainous, or even good. Next week will be about how the Wonderbolts suck for teasing Dash, the week after that going back to Starlight because she's there, then whoever is the villain in the upcoming Rarity episode, etc. It's ironic given the subtitle, Friendship is Magic.
Anyway, Starlight could use some hugs, too. She's cute and doing her best to learn about the world around her while becoming a better, wiser pony in the process.
Yeah the amount of people who seem to push logic to the side and focus solely on the face that ishe committed genocide (when in reality, that never happened) is very irritating. Chill the fuck out people, it's a show about cartoon horses. Go play video games, write something, do some sort of sport, go talk with your family, there are literally tens of thousands more important things you could be doing than getting so worked up over something that didn't even happen.
You're wrong.
She should have been guillotined, changed in stone with fireants crawling over her then banished in a cell on the moon. Just like Trixie.
Agreed. If anything, the magnitude of Starlight's deeds only emphasize the importance of her redemption. Someone capable of mutilating souls and altering history is equally capable of great positive actions. Plus, as you noted, if the Bearers of Harmony chose revenge over reformation, they'd be denying everything they stand for.